Spy Beat: The Magnificent Espionage Challenge
by Vivian Verbose
Summary: A botched kidnapping has landed Kyoko in the most brilliant undercover spy network that Japan has never known. The LME unit can be anyone, anywhere – all with a little make-up and brilliant acting. Kyoko is faced with a choice: use her new skills to get revenge on a certain billionaire hotel heir or join forces with LME's best agent, Tsuruga Ren, to save all of Japan. AU RenxKyoko
1. Chapter 1

Hello fanfiction aficionados,

It has been quite a few years since I've posted anything on this site. I'm certain I've gone through at least 4-5 other fandoms in the meantime without the obsession-driven obligation to project my own desires onto the characters and universe. But Skip Beat is too amazing of a story to pass up!

That, and I really need a constructive way to procrastinate from grad school.

Hope this fanfic tickles your fancy! I've already written a little under half of it, and it's 14 chapters already. I'll be posting one chapter every Monday from now on!

Enjoy,

K

* * *

 **All the world's a stage,**

 **And all the men and women merely players**

\- William Shakespeare, _As You Like It_

CH 1

The string quartet's music blended with the melody of female laughter as it drifted upstairs. Male voices joined in on the joke with raucous baritone, and champagne flutes clinked together. The engagement party seemed to be in full swing.

A slender hand cloaked in a black lace glove came to rest on the balcony railing. The hand's owner glanced down from the gloom upstairs to the brightly lit hallway below. The young woman would have been beautiful in her dark, lace-trimmed organza dress had her expression not been one of such cold imperiousness.

She took the marble stairs slowly, hand gliding down the bannister.

She had chosen to wear all black because it was meant as a mockery of her mother and sister – to wear the color of death and mourning on what ought to be a joyous occasion. She had also chosen to arrive late, blatantly disrespectful to infuriate them both.

Perfect.

Continuing her languid pace, she approached the doorway of the dining room, which spilled its bright light into the empty hall. The music and laughter grew louder as she drew closer. Just before entering, she raised one hand to tuck her short black hair behind her right ear.

'Let them see the scar. Let _her_ see the scar.'

One step into the room. Two steps… Head held high and back perfectly straight, the young woman walked the length of the table, and in her wake, the lively conversation and laughter slowly died and decayed into outright dismay and repulsed, gossiping murmurs. Off to one side of the room, even the string quartet fizzled out.

She could scarcely suppress her malicious grin. Perfect.

As she took her seat near the head of the table with the rest of her family, she ignored the infuriated glares from her mother and sister. A servant set a plate of food in front of her, and after settling her napkin on her lap, she began to eat her meal in small, elegant bites. A chill had permeated the room with her mere presence, and she relished it.

Perfect… Ruin her happiness. Ruin everything that she holds dear—

"May I propose a toast?" A deep, confident voice cut through the oppressive atmosphere like a ray of sunshine in a stormy sky.

Annoyed, the young woman didn't bother glancing up but instead continued eating. She knew it was her sister's meddling fiancé. He was always ruining her plans to taint her sister's perfect life.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the tall, handsome young man who stood with a champagne glass in one hand. "A toast to my future parents' health and long life! May fate return to them the… _kindness_ they have dealt to others in the past."

The rest of the guests, eager to shed the unbearable dread that had settled over the dinner party, heartily agreed and raised their glasses.

The fools. That was a thinly veiled threat if she'd ever heard one _._ Though, she was thoroughly amused. Her suspicions of Tachibana-sensei were increasing by the week.

Amidst the commotion and return to conversation, she felt a sharp elbow jab her side.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?"

The young woman stopped eating and turned to address her sister.

"What ever could you mean, dear Onee-sama? I'm enjoying the celebration of your engagement _so much_." She made a point to tilt her head ever so slightly so her sister could catch a glimpse of the ugly scar that marred the right side of her face. The barest hints of a vindictive smirk graced the younger woman's lips as she watched Misao recoil.

Before her older sister could gather herself and retort, the deep voice interrupted again. "So nice of you to finally join us… Mio-san."

Hongo Mio pointedly broke eye contact with her sister to stare icily at her future brother-in-law and current homeroom teacher, Tachibana Katsuki. The scarred woman half-heartedly feigned offense.

"I would not have missed this occasion for the world, Tachibana-sensei," Mio said as she slowly picked up her dinner knife. Languidly, she ran a black-gloved thumb up the sharp blade. "With a sister who is _so_ exquisitely perfect, how could you possibly doubt my steadfast love for her?"

Katsuki, refusing to be intimidated, leaned forward across the table. His handsome face tilted to the side, and his broad shoulders seemed even more so in his navy suit jacket. A slow smile, a shade darker than usual, slid across his masculine features.

"Is that so?"

"Of course." Mio turned to meet Misao's glare with a cold smile, but her words were directed pointedly at her sister's fiancé. "That is why I too believe that fate will return to her the _kindness_ she has dealt to others in the past."

Whether at her implication, Katsuki became flustered or retained his composure would remain to be seen. At that moment, a loud outburst turned Katsuki and Misao's attention to the middle of the dining table. Mio spared the interruption a glance.

"Mimori has had it, Sho-chan! Stop looking at her! _Mimori_ is your fiancé!" A shrill young woman threw her dinner napkin onto her plate and ran from the dining room with tears in her eyes. Her long black hair trailed behind her like a cloak. The string quartet once again stuttered to a halt, unsure if they ought to fill the awkward silence.

"Looks like there's trouble in paradise for the Fuwa's," Misao mused with a quirked eyebrow.

No one but Katsuki caught the annoyed tic that crossed Mio's face before she hastily smoothed her expression into one of apathy.

The offending fiancé, a tall rakish man with bleached blonde hair and too many ear piercings to be entirely proper, grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest before sneaking another glance in Mio's direction. This time it was Misao who caught Katsuki frown uncharacteristically before reacting properly with polite indifference.

Icily, Mio glared back at the man farther down the table.

That idiot was going to ruin everything.

"Mio."

Hearing her mother call her name, the young woman snapped out of her thoughts and turned, but did not respond. She saw a flash of indignation pass over her mother's face.

The Hongo matron narrowed her eyes and said pointedly, "Mio, why don't you go show Nanokura Mimori-san to a private room."

It was not a suggestion.

Mio returned her mother's steely gaze with her own. It was such an obvious punishment for her earlier behavior, to force her to do a servant's job. Mio looked away and for a beat, didn't move, just to further infuriate her mother. Then she gracefully stood and walked silently from the room, head held high.

-x-

Nanokura Mimori had been born into a wealthy family. If a teenage girl were to walk into any bookstore in any train station in Japan and perused any fashion or entertainment magazine, there was an 85% chance that her father owned its publishing company.

Mimori was also famous in her own right. She had been a fashion idol since middle school, and a gravure idol since her figure had finished developing in high school. Girls her age would fall over themselves to get her autograph – and boys too.

Well, mostly boys. But not one boy…

Crouching in the dark bedroom and facing the corner, Mimori sniffled. In a moment of weakness, she almost regretted getting engaged to Fuwa Sho… with his strong arms and manly hands and rough personality that made her heart swoon… until better judgment overcame her, and her self-pity boiled over into angry resentment at that worthless _peasant_.

Grimacing in distaste, Mimori mentally railed against the stupid beggar-girl— who must be a monster or an alien because she had basically transformed into another person at a moment's notice, Mimori was so shocked, and honestly, that girl wasn't pretty at all, well maybe a little, in a scary kind of way, but Mimori would never admit that…

Lost in her own thoughts, the preoccupied heiress didn't notice the shadowy figure approaching her from behind. Soundless steps padded expertly along the glossy hardwood floor. A black-gloved hand stretched out.

"Nanokura-san!"

The door to the room burst open, and Mimori whirled around. Speak of the devil, the worthless peasant stood in the doorway, breathless, and… Who was this man wearing a ski mask? Oh Kami-sama! Everyone was right! She was going to get kidnapped!

Before Mimori could scream, an iron grip clamped over her mouth. Mimori struggled against the masked man, who mere moments before, had intently been creeping up behind her. Desperate, she tried clawing his hand away and biting his black-gloved fingers.

No! If she got kidnapped, then who would save Sho-chan from the wiles of this stupid peasant?

"Nanokura-san. Don't move."

At the steely tone, Mimori froze on instinct and looked up to see the barrel of a silenced pistol. The young woman who had been the proud, aloof Hongo Mio only minutes before was now a determined and well-trained professional. She kept her gun fixed on Mimori's attacker.

"You. Don't move either," she commanded, her golden-brown eyes glinting with an unbreakable fierceness. She inched her way toward them, keeping the gun aimed at the kidnapper's body.

The masked man simply chuckled and pulled Mimori to shield more of himself. Mimori looked up, frightened, and caught sight of the man's night vision goggles that glinted in the scarce light.

"Agent M, I presume," he said mockingly. "Though, I am shocked that Agent T would let his precious kouhai this close to danger without him."

Mimori noticed her assailant's other hand sliding slowly behind his back. She shook her head vigorously to warn the peasant and let out a muffled scream.

Before Mimori could comprehend, several things happened, seemingly at once.

Her attacker pulled a gun out, the female agent loosed two shots, and the man dropped his gun to the floor with a loud clatter and a slew of obscenities. His hold on Mimori slackened. Taking advantage of her opponent's distraction, Agent M, organza dress and all, crossed the room in an instant and with a flying leap, spun and kicked the man in the jaw. Mimori dropped to the ground.

In horrified awe, Mimori watched the woman approach the attempted kidnapper. Goggles somehow still attached to his face, he was groaning and trying to rise shakily to his knees. The young agent gave him a cold glance, then raised her pistol.

In one fluid movement, she brought the butt of the gun down on the base of his skull with a sharp _crack_.

"Hmph," the woman scoffed as the kidnapper crumpled to the ground. "T-san shouldn't have to waste his time on low-level guys like you."

-x-

Dusting off the hem of her dress, Agent M was about to check the perpetrator for weapons and secure him when she noticed Mimori still lying shocked on the floor. With a heavy sigh, the undercover agent offered the poor girl a reluctant hand.

Coming to her senses, Mimori batted away the hand angrily.

"What are _you_ doing here, peasant?" the magazine heiress sniped, trying to smooth her hair and rumpled dress.

The "peasant" in question gave her an exasperated, bitter frown. Before she had a chance to retort, the heiress had shoved past her with a gasp and an elated shout of "Sho-chan!"

Fuwa Sho was still trying to pry Mimori off of his arm and address Agent M when 'Katsuki' strode past them both and into the dark bedroom.

The young woman gave a brief salute and stated briskly, "Agent M reporting. One assailant subdued. Fractured mandible and possible concussion. Target is secure and -"

"Sho-chan must have been _so_ worried! Mimori almost _died_!" Mimori's shrill voice faded as their backup ushered the two civilians downstairs.

"…and lively," Agent M ended with a grimace of distaste.

The tall, dark-haired man suppressed a laugh. His eyes twinkled with pride at her handiwork. "Good job, M-san. Let's wrap this up and get back to HQ."

Someone groaned.

"Not …so fast…"

Both agents whirled around. The masked man was rising shakily to his feet, gun in hand. The partners raised their hands slowly and backed away.

Agent T muttered to M, "You didn't search him for weapons and tie him up?"

M mumbled back, "I was about to, but then Nanokura-san and that stupid Sho–"

Their backs hit the wall of the bedroom. Agent M was closest to the door, and she felt something small and plastic digging into her back. She made brief eye contact with Agent T, and he gave her a nearly imperceptible nod.

The failed kidnapper was continuing forward unsteadily, his gun shifting between the two agents.

"Now! You are going to give me the Nanokura girl and let us leave, and I won't have to kill anyone…"

Agent T waited until the man's gun was pointed at him, then tapped his foot on the ground. At his cue, Agent M flicked on the room's light switch as she dove to the floor.

Blinded by the sudden light, especially with the night vision goggles still affixed to his face, the assailant yelled and shot twice in the taller operative's direction. Distracted by his burning retinas, the masked man failed to see the fist that made hard contact with his nose, adding to his facial fracture count and knocking him out cold.

* * *

Again, I'll be updating every Monday (unless studies, work, or life events take precedence). Please leave a fave and review! It would mean the world to me. :)

K


	2. Chapter 2

Hello all,

Happy Monday! I'm really excited by how much attention this story has been getting. Please continue to take care of me!

Best wishes,

K

* * *

 **CH2**

Guns had nothing on the Demon Lord.

Kyoko sat in the passenger's seat of Ren's car, frozen in fear. She was more afraid than when she had been held at gunpoint earlier that evening.

After all, guns were a known quantity. Pompous lackeys were a known quantity. Tsuruga Ren when he was angry was a… a semi-known quantity – but Kyoko hadn't seen him this angry in a while. He was angry enough that he wasn't even smiling his fake gentleman's smile and was openly scowling.

The Demon Lord had returned after a long vacation…

"Tsu…Tsuruga-san…?" she tried to eek out in as small a voice as she could muster.

"Yes, Mogami-san." Not looking down, the agent continued to speed along his route from the rented Western-style mansion in Mitaka back to LME headquarters in Shinjuku.

Slightly emboldened by his acknowledgement, Kyoko burst forth with a multitude of apologies. Her head bobbled furiously with each statement as she bowed as best she could from under her seatbelt.

"Tsuruga-san! I, your worthless kouhai, DEEPLY apologize for disappointing you. I apologize for not ensuring the suspect was unconscious. I apologize for not immediately taking his weapon away. I apologize that you had to endanger yourself for someone like me. I apologize also because I just called myself your kouhai, and I am decidedly unworthy to be so presumptuous –!"

"Mogami-san!"

Kyoko paused in the middle of berating herself and her improvised car-seat dogeza, and dared to look up. Ren sighed a bit and glanced down at her, his eyes noticeably softer.

"Mogami-san, it wasn't entirely your fault. I'm sure you were going to take care of all that when Fuwa and I showed up and distracted you. It's partially my fault because I rushed the situation to check on you. I just… wanted to make sure you were safe," Ren said, a tender smile on his face.

Most women would have been enthralled by the warmth and vulnerability that graced the already swoon-worthy face of Tsuruga Ren, but Kyoko cringed away from the unearthly brightness of his face. It was a genuine smile, but it was no less unnerving. To escape her discomfort, Kyoko changed the topic.

"Tsuruga-san," she said, pouting slightly. "This is why protocols exist. Why did you allow a civilian upstairs at such a time? That stupid Sho was supposed to wait downstairs under protection…"

Thinking more about the situation and persons involved, Kyoko's brow knit together and darkened. She muttered viciously, "But knowing _him_ , he probably just barged in without thinking about anyone else but himself. Rot in hell and go bald, Shotaro–!"

Kyoko cut herself off this time. Ren was angry again.

Long time no see, Mr. Demon Lord, Sir.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry for lecturing you! Such an unworthy newbie as myself!" she moaned, tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

"It's not–" Her senpai caught himself and sighed, drawing a hand over his face. "Please do not be concerned, Mogami-san."

"But–!"

"Kyoko-chan~" Another man's voice came in over the car's Bluetooth system. "Don't worry about this manic-depressive guy. He's just jealous that Fuwa–"

"Yashiro-san…" Ren's gentleman mask was back. "What have I told you about eavesdropping in my car?"

More than 15 kilometers away, Yashiro Yukihito swore he could hear the agent's dazzling smile over the comm system. Yashiro wavered between fearing for his bodily safety and cackling in enjoyment. The three of them continued to banter lightly as Ren's silver sports car wound through the peaceful Japanese countryside back to the city.

-x-

"The FBI of Japan is a wolf with no teeth," the public often said about the Public Security Intelligence Agency. After World War II, anti-military sentiment and a popular demand for governmental accountability emasculated the then newly-formed PSIA. Eventually, Japanese civilians began to pride themselves in the idea that Japan was the only prominent first-world nation with no need for the dirty subterfuge of an intelligence bureau.

Therefore, fifteen stories below the gently sloping hills and meandering, manicured forest of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, the headquarters of the LME unit was a well-kept secret. Only a foolish nation (like perhaps the United States) would have an intelligence agency that loudly voiced its actions and existence to the public. Secrecy about the PSIA's exploits was a historical byproduct-turned-luxury for the intelligence agency, and by extension, the LME unit.

Due to its secrecy, as well as the high cost of real estate within the greater Tokyo area, when the PSIA Director-General commissioned Lory Takarada to form an elite undercover spy unit, the decision was made to build downward.

However, hiding out of sight was not exactly Takarada's style. His professional belief and the modus operandi of the LME unit was that hiding in plain sight with a flashy disguise was the best way to hide. People often remembered the flashy disguise – not the men and women underneath.

Therefore, considering her geographical position nearly half a kilometer below a highly populated public park, Kyoko shouldn't have been so astonished as she sat in an exact replica of a noble's room in Tokugawa-era Edo Castle.

Ornate, gilded peacocks on a vast mountainscape adorned the muslin panels of the sliding doors. Her sitting cushion, which a kimono-clad servant had earlier motioned for her to take, was interwoven with real gold thread. The tatami mat beneath her cushion was very firm and well-made; not a single fiber strayed out of place.

Kyoko tried not to stare at the President in front of her. Last week he was an American drummajor, complete with a twirling mace and a substantial brass marching band. Who knew what kind of flashy look he had donned today?

A quick glance to her left told her that Ren was less impressed, which would make sense. As a senior agent, the legendary Agent T had probably seen inside the _real_ Imperial Palace. He had probably been on important missions and had rubbed shoulders with all of the most consequential people in Japan.

Suddenly feeling awed and very humbled, Kyoko tried to straighten her kneeling posture.

"So…? How did your mission go?" President Takarada sat, expectant in his patterned-silk court noble's kimono. He waved an ornate fan with gold-foil trim at Ren to proceed.

Kyoko strangled the urge to dogeza on instinct. Both the royal setting and her own disappointing performance during the mission made it difficult not to go back on the promise she had made to Ren to save her dogeza apologies for more dire circumstances— even though she had already bowed her head to him on the car ride back.

As the senior agent, Ren went first, giving a detailed run-down of the events of the operation – from re-establishing the Hongo and Tachibana identities to the actual sting operation to capture the rival agent who had been sent by a currently unknown entity for its second attempt to kidnap Nanokura Mimori.

He noted that there were no issues reusing their identities from the previous mission. The only minor difficulty was a shorter than usual preparation period, which could not have been helped, given the urgent request from Fuwa Daisuke, the hotel mogul, to thwart the kidnapping attempt on his son's fiancé.

Ren continued with how the Target, Nanokura Mimori, had unexpectedly run off halfway through the operation, and with quick thinking, Iizuka had made up an excuse to send Kyoko after the heiress for protection.

When Ren had heard over his earpiece the alert from Yashiro that something had tripped one of the upstairs window alarms, he had, as Katsuki, excused himself to go to the restroom. The Fuwa family and dinner guests were left under the protection of agents Momose, Iizuka, Kijima, and Oohara. All the agents remained under the guise of the Hongo family for the benefit of the other guests, who did not know about the operation. Per previous experience, it was better to keep up appearances in case the "Hongo family" could be used again in the future.

Listening intently, Kyoko mentally interjected her own experience. She had also heard the alert from Yashiro, which had caused her to break character as Mio and sprint for the bedroom where Nanokura Mimori's tracker placed her. As Ren continued, Kyoko was not surprised to learn that Sho had made himself a nuisance by leaving the safety of the dining room and insisting on going upstairs with Ren.

After all, during the aftermath of the operation, the self-centered hotel heir made very clear to Kyoko his opinion that she was unqualified for her current line of work. Thoroughly infuriated, she had quickly rebuffed his offer to return to her former employment under his father.

She had also sworn, in no uncertain terms, that using her new position at LME, she would dig up some unsavory material and get her revenge on him.

Losing herself further in thought, Kyoko fumed. The last straw had been at the end of the mission, when that idiot had verbally accosted Tsuruga-san for no reason at all. Since Kyoko had been busy with Momose Itsumi confirming the criminal's drop-off to interrogation, she couldn't hear the words exchanged, but it was apparent that both men were angry.

"…Mogami-san?"

Startled, Kyoko snapped out of her thoughts and found both Ren and Lory staring at her. Apparently she had missed her cue to provide her own input on the mission outcome.

Catching herself mid-dogeza, Kyoko spluttered out, "Ah! My apologies, President and Tsuruga-san. I was just thinking about how much I hate that idiot Sho–." Realizing her audience, she tried to correct herself in a hasty rush of muttered words. "I-I mean, I was preoccupied, considering the… ungracious behavior of our most recent client."

Cringing, Kyoko prayed that the President would overlook her slip-up.

No such luck. The damage had been done.

With a flourish of his fan, Lory pouted mightily, shook his head in disappointment, and began his usual monologue.

"Mogami-san! Why do you think that we, the Likeness-Modifying Espionage Unit, exist? For love! Love of our fellow countrymen–" His court noble's hat bobbled on his head as he rose smoothly and strode around the room like a Kabuki player.

One glance at Ren showed Kyoko that he was trying to hide his impatience with the President. His gentleman's smile was out in full force.

For some reason, Tsuruga-san was very intent on the outcome of this mission, Kyoko mused. With each passing minute, her senpai's smile dialed up in brilliance.

Yes… very intent…

"Love for our tender Japanese society!"

Kyoko edged away on her cushion slightly, out of Ren's line of fire.

"Love for love's sake!"

She bit back a wince. They were going to be there for a while.

-x-

Kijima Hidehito sighed mightily for the fifteenth time that night.

The transfer of the hostile from LME to the Public Security Intelligence Agency was going smoothly. A transfer was necessary because, while the LME unit was known for its capabilities in reconnaissance, surveillance, and protection, their agents were neither equipped nor allowed to perform something as distasteful as interrogation. This, Lory Takarada, ensured in writing when first establishing the specialized unit in the late 80's.

Still, the sting operation had been under LME's jurisdiction, so they were tasked with at least performing the mandatory security checks and transporting their own prisoner to the drop-off point. This required two LME agents to escort the captive to his obligatory medical physical and x-rays. The medical check ensured the guy wouldn't keel over from his injuries before the PSIA's interrogation specialists had a crack at him, and the full-body x-rays reassured everyone that there were no booby traps implanted in his body.

It was finally 2:34 a.m. when Kijima stood in a randomly chosen Tokyo alley, ready for the drop-off. With one hand, he held Nanokura Mimori's would-be kidnapper firmly by the shoulder, and with his other, he stifled a yawn. The criminal, now unmasked, stripped of weapons, and handcuffed, was barely conscious after the sedation required for transport.

Exasperated, Kijima sighed again. Why couldn't Ren take care of his own operations to the very end? Most likely, the senior agent just wanted to whisk "Mio" away from the prying eyes of that stuck-up Fuwa heir as soon as he could.

On his end, Kijima had had to postpone a date with a famous actress to serve as support for this last-minute sting operation, and his and Momose's task for the night was the one that tended to keep agents into overtime the longest. Not like there was much Kijima could do, since Ren was the agent on point for their current operation. And Kijima himself had just recently been promoted and assigned his own junior.

However, Kijima made a mental note to call in a favor from his colleague at a later date. Maybe he could ask Tsuruga for Kyoko-chan's cell phone number… Ren's protectiveness over his kouhai intrigued him. Maybe there was more to the newbie agent than met the eye…

Meanwhile, Momose Itsumi finished handing over the necessary documents to the PSIA agents and bowed crisply to them.

Noticing that his own kouhai had finished the transfer work, Kijima gave the captured kidnapper a slight shove into the hands of the awaiting agents. He had little respect for those who placed the delicate, fairer sex in danger.

To emphasize his distaste, Kijima called to the PSIA agents, "Get everything you can out of this piece of scum, will ya?"

The two nondescript men merely bowed crisply at the waist and turned with their prisoner to leave.

"Heh…"

The swelling in the kidnapper's jaw prevented him from speaking clearly, but his chuckle was still full of obvious malice. Ignoring him, the PSIA agents pushed him toward their government-issue black sedan.

Even though every rational thought told Kijima that he had the upper hand in the current situation, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up when the captured man slurred, "Scum? Me?! YOU all are the real scum – the obedient dogs who lick the feet of your government masters!"

"Come on, Kijima-san. We're done here," Itsumi turned and strode past her partner toward their own car, high heels clacking on the asphalt.

Kijima knew she was right – he was just being baited – but his instincts tugged at his stomach. The senior agent's eyes narrowed.

"Oh yeah?" Kijima called back. The PSIA agents paused from stuffing their prisoner into the back seat of their vehicle. "Who's _your_ master then, you bottom-feeder lackey?"

For a moment, the man was silent, but Kijima could see him moving his mouth. The hairs on Kijima's neck stood up, and his body automatically shifted to lower his center of gravity. Itsumi, picking up on the tense atmosphere, took a step back and slid one hand toward her weapon's holster.

"Tell Lory Takarada," the man mumbled smugly, "that Delta says hello."

He bit down on something in his mouth.

A fiery explosion rocked the dark, Tokyo morning.

-x-

The intermittent sizzle of static echoed through the large, dark room. The only source of light was the flickering TV screen situated in front of two men.

"SIGNAL LOST" flashed in a muted red in the upper left corner of the screen.

The two men, who had been watching the screen intently only moments before, now sat back in their tall black chairs. One man glanced at the other, who was still staring fixedly at the screen before them. His stare was unwavering, but his fingers came up to steeple together, his mind obviously deep in thought.

"So? We lost Upsilon. What now?" The first man asked impatiently, running a hand through curly brown-blonde hair.

His dark-haired companion continued to stare at the screen. As he finally turned, glasses glinted on his nose in the screen's flickering light.

"It is a sad reality that every just cause requires a few martyrs," the dark-haired man murmured. "But a chess game cannot be won without sacrificing a few pawns."

The first man seemed put-off. He growled, "Was Upsilon's sacrifice within your predictions? It looks like Takarada has acquired more talent than we calculated."

"Worry not, old friend. Today was merely a declaration." Under his glasses, a cold smile slid over the other man's face. "A declaration of war."

With that, he reached forward and clicked off the television, enveloping the room in darkness.

* * *

 _Kouhai_ – a junior in school or a company, the opposite of ' _senpai_ '

 _Dogeza –_ the bow of extreme formal apology in which the repentant individual kneels and bows their forehead to the ground – so basically, whatever Kyoko does when she's messed up

* * *

Tune back in next Monday for Chapter 3. Reviews and Faves are greatly appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

Happy Monday!

So I decided to take a leaf from some other author's stories and include a "mail bag" section at the end of each chapter! I'll be responding to and answering questions from the 5 most "interesting" reviews each week. I would love to do all of them, but I think after a while, I would get burnt out – so let's just be honest from the start and have low but realistic expectations from lazy ol' me. Haha

A couple of small dissatisfactions with this chapter, so my apologies ahead of time. I think that the POV jumps around too much during the first couple of scenes; but I was too lazy to rework all of it to include all the elements and emotions I wanted D: Please forgive me!

Another possible point of contention is that Nakamura-sensei has YET to announce Sho's father's actual name. So I gave him as strict and important-sounding a name as I could think of – "Daisuke". As much as I'd rather Sensei devote her time and energy to developing Kyoko's character and her relationship with Ren and LESS time on Sho's family… I mean… C'mon, give the guy a name! Same with the Darumaya couple – but I feel like it's just a running joke at this point how these two have gotten this far without proper names.

Enjoy the show!

\- K

* * *

 **CH3**

 **\- One and a half years prior** -

 _"_ _You're the only one who can do this, Kyoko. I need you_."

Sho-chan… She felt sorry that she had doubted him. He was her prince after all!

Sho's whispered plea had echoed in Kyoko's ears as she pranced down the manor's halls to beg the Okami-san to help her get dressed properly. Though Kyoko knew how to put on a formal kimono, she wanted to look perfect for the dinner that night. Also, all of her previous experience had been gained helping other rich young misses get dressed; never actually donning one herself.

Now, oblivious to the Okami-san's worried glances, Kyoko hummed to herself as she adjusted the gilded tortoise-shell pin in her long, black-haired wig. She needed the wig because even though her own hair was long and black also, it was not nearly as long and lusciously full as Mimori's. After all, Mimori's father was rich and she could afford professional hair products, whereas Kyoko was still living off her wages as a servant…

"Kyoko-chan…?" At the okami's quiet voice, Kyoko perked up from her increasingly pitiful train of thought.

"Hai, Okami-san?" Even though the kindly, middle-aged woman was no longer the okami of a restaurant and instead had taken up the position of housekeeper at the Fuwa mansion years ago, Kyoko had continued to address her as such.

Haltingly, the okami tried to voice her concerns aloud. For not the first time, the older woman wished that she and her husband had had children of their own so she could be better prepared for what to tell Kyoko.

"My apologies, Okami-san, but I think the obi is a little loose…"

"Kyoko-chan. Why are you doing this?"

Blinking at the abrupt question, Kyoko said simply, "Because Sho-chan asked me to."

Worried, the graying, wizened woman placed a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder and looked sadly at the joy that twinkled in her amber eyes.

There was such a thing as professional discretion, a servant complying with a master's wishes unquestioningly, but this was something else. Something about the young master's request was wrong in a hundred ways. Allowing Kyoko-chan to pose as his fiancé? Something was certainly wrong.

But one look at the light blush that painted Kyoko's cheeks and the weightlessness of her step told the astute housekeeper that none of her words would reach her surrogate daughter.

"Okami-san, I am sorry to trouble you, but I believe the obi is still a tad loose."

Sighing heavily, the older woman relented and handed Kyoko two very specifically molded bunches of fabric. "I know, Kyoko-chan. That was on purpose. Nanokura-sama is a bit… heavier on top, after all."

She watched as Kyoko blushed furiously and adjusted her kimono accordingly.

"Oh, Kami-sama, please keep this girl safe," the housekeeper murmured to herself. And heaven help the Fuwa boy if her husband ever heard of this farce…

-x-

"Ren, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Alone in his car, hidden on an abandoned maintenance road in the woods behind Fuwa manor, Ren sighed and tightened the laces on his boots one final time. "Yashiro-san, we went over this with the President. Fewer people means faster times in and out of the manor."

Safe, several cities away in the LME Tactical Room, Yashiro continued to obsessively flip through the manor's hacked camera feed. Ren's insistence on going solo to secure the girl was unnerving. It was very unlike Ren, who always adhered to the rules and policies of the LME unit, which included partners on 90% of missions.

"Does this have anything to do with Rick?"

Shocked, Ren froze. Unconsciously, his hand drifted to the watch on his left wrist before he caught himself. Calmly, he continued his final gear-check. Three tranquilizer syringes. One retractable grappling hook. Two lengths of nylon rope… "Yashiro-san. How many times have I told you to stop digging up my past for your own enjoyment?"

Yashiro's eyes narrowed into suspicious slits. Ren's tech support muttered mostly to himself, "You didn't answer my question, so the answer is, 'yes' – isn't it? You complicated man."

Then Yashiro realized his mic was still on.

Fortunately, Ren was preoccupied, pulling the hood of his black jumpsuit over his dark hair and strapping his gear pack to his back. "Yashiro, what was that? I didn't quite catch that…"

A tad relieved, Yashiro cleared his throat. "Ahem… Ah… nothing… Just…don't forget your gloves. We don't want fingerprints on this one."

Starting to trot toward the brightly lit mansion, Ren caught himself before he scoffed. " _You_ don't forget _your_ gloves, Yashiro-san. We don't want a repeat of the Osaka debacle."

" _Ha—i,_ " Yashiro droned flippantly, switching his mic off. He pouted as he reflexively pulled his latex gloves on a little tighter. Low blow, Ren. Low blow.

-x-

Kyoko paused before answering the knock on her door. Taking a deep breath, she thought to herself, 'I am Nanokura Mimori. Rich, entitled, confident… In love with Sho.'

Kyoko's version of Nanokura Mimori flung the door open. "Sho-chan! Have you come to escort Mimori to dinner?" she cried and leapt forward into Sho's shocked embrace.

"Pochiri?!" Sho stumbled back under the force of 'Mimori' and his own astonishment. "What are you doing _here_? Otou-san told you to–!"

"Sho-chan," Kyoko spoke pointedly at the stunned heir and winked. "Why wouldn't I be in my own guest room?"

"Kyo–?!"

Slim hands flew up to cover Sho's mouth.

Giggling at her prince's surprise, Kyoko removed her hands and placed a slender finger to her lips. Sho, disentangled now, staggered slightly before catching himself and eyeing his childhood friend with a mixture of incredulity and an emotion that Kyoko could not immediately place.

Before she could scrutinize his face further, Sho straightened and cleared his throat. He leveled his usual arrogant gaze at her and jerked his head toward the end of the hall.

"Come on. We're going to be late for dinner, _Mimori_."

-x-

"Nanokura-ojou-san, we are fortunate to be able to meet the future wife of Fuwa Shotaro tonight. We were previously told you were ill and could not attend," intoned the uptight and spectacled translator. He punctuated his sentence with a small bow. Sitting next to the Japanese translator, a middle-aged American businessman nodded his head eagerly in agreement, although he probably understood nothing that came out of his employee's mouth.

Since English was one of her best subjects at school, Kyoko was fairly certain the original sentence was far too familiar and much less proper than the translator's version. Stifling the urge to switch to English (since Mimori was not as diligent in her studies), Kyoko merely bowed in her seat and murmured demurely in formal _keigo_ , "The pleasure is all mine, Hawkins-san. You are correct, because I was ill earlier this evening; however in my excitement to meet you and your associates, I have found myself feeling much better."

While Mimori may not have been the brightest bulb in the box, Kyoko knew that Sho's fiance had been groomed for years to act politically and politely, as befitted the heiress of a major media conglomerate. Despite her innately critical and forthright personality, Mimori was able to play the part required of her. After all, Fuwa Daisuke-sama had high demands for Sho's future bride, and Mimori would have no one else taking her Sho-chan away from her.

Kyoko had to nudge Sho with her foot. He really needed to stop gaping at her like a beached fish and dribbling his lobster bisque off his spoon and onto the tablecloth. Was it really such a surprise that she could portray a proper ojou-sama after so many years of attending to them in this very dining room?

Shotaro's parents similarly shook off their surprise. Even though they had housed and essentially raised Kyoko since childhood, they had never seen her act like this, especially in such a perfect imitation of 'polite Mimori.'

Daisuke quickly turned the talk to his business partners' flight from America and whether they liked the Western-style food served at the mansion. Hawkins and the other American businessmen answered and in turn asked about the upcoming wedding for the Fuwa heir.

Fuwa Yayoi smiled behind a polite hand and asked if the gentlemen were in a rush to take her one and only son away from her. Two to three years, then they would be wed, she answered cheerfully.

Picking up on the cue, Kyoko smiled and looked dreamily at Sho, but on the inside, her heart was straining painfully.

Trying to force her heartache away, her hand drifted to the small purse, which she had hastily stuffed under her kimono obi. Wishing her bad feelings away, Kyoko also thought about this afternoon when Sho had asked her to pretend to be Mimori. He had asked her something else as well…

It would be ok. Sho-chan had promised. He asked her to go to Tokyo with him, so he could finally fulfill his dream. He had asked her, _not_ Nanokura-san… And after tonight…

"How about Shotaro-bocchan?" the translator asked, devoid of the playfulness of the original speaker. "Do you think he will be ready to take the reins of the biggest ryokan and hotel chain in Japan when you retire, Fuwa-san?"

Sho stiffened beside her, but Kyoko could see right through his calm expression. His hands clenched so tightly beneath the table that his knuckles turned a deathly white.

Daisuke only glanced briefly at his only son before turning back to his meal and stating gruffly, "He will be ready."

The subtly veiled threat was lost in translation, and the Americans continued the conversation light-heartedly. Beside her, Kyoko noticed Sho's nails digging half-moon imprints on his palm.

"Sho-chan…" Kyoko murmured sadly, then quickly tried to school her expression back into Mimori's. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice her slip out of character, because at that moment, the power cut out, submerging the entire dinner in darkness.

Kyoko heard the servants scurrying behind the scenes as Yayoi mused, "Odd… our back-up generator doesn't seem to be working…"

Then, all six of the upper dining room windows simultaneously shattered, and in an instant, chaos reigned.

Everyone seemed to be screaming and yelling. Kyoko heard a clank as something metallic hit the floor, and a heartbeat later, she smelled acrid smoke and felt her eyes and lungs stinging.

Someone was pulling roughly on her kimono sleeve and calling her name.

"Kyoko! Kyoko, come on! We need to get out of here!"

"Sho? Sho-chan!" Kyoko screamed and scrambled to her feet and let Sho pull her past the fleeing tumult of servants and dinner guests, status and decorum forgotten in their mad dash to escape the tear gas pouring into the dining hall. Before Sho yanked her from the room, Kyoko caught sight of several dark figures quickly descending from the broken windows on ropes.

Just as Kyoko cleared the dining room doors, she tripped. Sho tried to pull her to her feet and untangle the hem of her kimono. Behind them, they heard yelling and a series of large crashes. Several people screamed.

"Sho – your parents!"

"There's no time!" Sho snapped and dragged her to her feet. "They're not here for my parents!"

Distracted by her bruised knees and the necessity of sprinting for her life, Kyoko lost the thought that briefly lingered in her mind.

How did he know they weren't there for his parents?

Breathless, she and Sho managed to make it to the kitchen. It was dim, but moonlight filtered in through the window.

Two figures rose out of the darkness. One wielded a large cleaver that gleamed in the scant light.

Elated, Kyoko sprang forward. "Taisho-san! Okami-san! Thank goodness you are both alright."

The elderly matron embraced Kyoko tightly, while her husband stood by, gruff but obviously relieved.

"Good. Now, stay here and stay safe."

Shocked, Kyoko turned around. "Sho-chan? You're not going to stay here? It's too dangerous to be wandering around outside."

Sho ran a frustrated hand through his bleached blonde hair and tossed Kyoko his cell phone in the dark. "I just have… something I need to check on. Call the police and stay hidden."

Before Kyoko could protest, Sho had peeked out the door and was gone.

* * *

 _Keigo_ – formal Japanese language

* * *

 **MAILBAG** :

Aikori Ichijouji – Thanks for your back-to-back reviews! I actually just read both Criminal and Paperwork for a Week and loved them both! Thanks for helping to fuel my own FF writings. Looking forward to reading Fates Interwoven!

Guest (for the lack of a better name) – It's always a huge compliment when someone calls one of my works both "different" and "good". It's really tempting to reinvent the wheel when writing FF, because it's more familiar and many of the story elements are already laid out. That's why I love AU stories so much; there are characters we all know and love, but in cool, new scenarios!

JeremyVD – Yeah! That's what I loved most about writing the opening scene. There's so much duplicity and just general 'WTF is going on' moments that I can't wait to unravel for you guys!

Latafmodginkianp37 – Haha, hopefully the pacing is still good by about halfway through. Getting the pace right while still keeping up interest but putting enough detail world-build without being wordy/boring is a rough balance. Let me know how I do!

MWEH – Thank you! Hopefully I'm able to meet your expectations and give you some good old fashioned escapism every week!


	4. Chapter 4

Hello Skip Beat fandom!

I can't believe it's almost that time of the month again. One week and a few days (depending on the translators) left before a new chapter of the manga. How long has it been since I've started counting the days of the month according to their proximity to the 20th? I'm good and truly hooked!

Also, on an unrelated note, I will be switching my weekly upload date from Mondays to **Saturdays**. It'll probably just be easier for me, since my schedule this month gives me Saturdays off, whereas Mondays are a toss-up. I never know when I'm going to get off my shift.

* * *

 **CH4**

Crouching in the shadow of the building, his ear to the wall, Ren concentrated. The amplification software in his earpiece allowed him to catch snippets of screams, wanton property destruction, and conversation cut by static.

"—son and the girl, where…?"

"—said… that way, but… conflicting reports…"

"Man, how troubl…some. All… for blackmail…"

"…Fuwa's… rich...… House… Represen…"

Ren tried to listen more closely. As ashamed as Ren was to admit it, Yashiro had been correct to suspect the field operative of an ulterior motive. After a very mysterious tipoff, the information tying these intruders to Rick's murderer was within his grasp…

Their voices dimmed. They were walking away from the wall.

Hurriedly, Ren cast about himself for a way into the Fuwa mansion. He was about to toss his grapple hook onto a third-floor balcony when the balcony's wooden door opened. Alarmed, Ren stepped back into the building's shadow.

To his surprise, a young woman emerged and carefully closed the door behind her. Teenaged, tattered kimono, long black hair, barefoot but carrying shoes – his sharp eyes assessed.

To his further surprise, she deliberately tossed one of her wooden geta sandals down to the grass below, and then the other. She then reached inside the front of her kimono and pulled out two bunches of cloth, which she quickly unraveled and tied to one of the balcony's railings. The sturdy fabric strip dangled far enough from the third floor to brush the cool grass below.

Ren watched her hastily roll up her kimono sleeves and tighten her obi, improperly tying it in a bow around her front and giving it a small, reassuring pat. She climbed over the railing, clutching the rails from the outside, bare toes gripping the wooden posts. She glanced down and shivered.

Suddenly, someone started banging on the balcony door.

The door stayed closed. The young woman yelped and wound the fabric around her hand a couple of times. Trembling slightly, she lowered herself onto the balcony one floor below. The fabric strip held her weight. He and the girl both let out a sigh of relief as she touched down onto the solid floor of the balcony.

Ren hadn't even realized he had been holding his breath.

Safely on the second floor, the girl backed away from her makeshift rope and expertly popped the lower balcony door out of its lock. She pulled the wooden door open and was gone.

There was a crash above as her pursuers finally broke through. Exclamations of surprise, then a man's head poked itself over the railing.

"There! Her shoes! She must have climbed down and run off into the forest!"

Ren crouched further as the man, dressed in black stealth garb and a flak jacket, barked orders into a walkie-talkie. He was quickly gone.

Blinking in realization, Ren broke from the cover of the building's outer wall and leapt to grab the base of the second-floor balcony. Pulling himself up with ease, he quickly clambered over the railing and somersaulted across the deck. He paused. Silent. Waiting.

Seconds later, six armed men passed under the balcony, straight past his previous hiding spot, and toward the forest.

Ren sighed as he followed the girl through the door and back into the house. It was going to be more difficult to try and gather information about Rick now that he had found his actual target. Something was off, though… but Ren couldn't quite put his finger on it.

-x-

Kyoko breathed a sigh of relief. Safe. For the moment.

Holding her kimono together so her upper legs were at least covered, Kyoko peeked through the bedroom door before starting down the hall at a cautious trot. Hopefully, her diversion sent the majority of the intruders into the woods on a wild goose chase.

She had gotten lucky. After leaving the kitchen and the pleas of her beloved Okami-san, she started for Fuwa-sama's office on the 2nd floor, only to be stopped by a pair of goons. Fortunately, she had grown up in the Fuwa mansion, and years of playing hide and seek with Sho privileged her with an intimate knowledge of every nook and cranny of the house.

However, the manor's intruders were extraordinarily intent on hunting her down. Slightly confused, Kyoko wasn't sure what to make of their seemingly single-minded pursuit of her. However, seeing as how the only other people she had seen were the Okami and Taisho, maybe the bad guys were just trying to catch everyone.

Kyoko felt uneasy. How did Sho-chan know they weren't here for his parents? Something was very wrong. She needed to find Sho, and fast.

After what seemed like ages, pausing at every noise and often backtracking to avoid capture, she finally arrived at the office. Cautiously, Kyoko pushed open the heavy oak door. Familiar wall-to-wall bookcases greeted her. She had lost count of the number of times she was tasked with dusting the entire room but had to sheepishly apologize when Fuwa-sama caught her lost in one of his tomes.

But this room held other memories as well. Kyoko still remembered one quiet Sunday afternoon when she was in elementary school. Upon finding Kyoko mysteriously despondent and inconsolable, Sho had told her to follow him to his father's office because he had something to show her.

Giggling at the secrecy, Kyoko had kept watch out the office door while Sho fiddled with something under his father's lacquered mahogany desk.

"Ah! Got it!"

Sho's exclamation caused Kyoko to run and join him, facing the center-most bookshelf. She gasped as some unseen machinery clanked, and, like magic, the bookcase slid back and then to the right, revealing a metal door behind.

Six year-old Kyoko was ecstatic. "You can do magic too, Sho-chan?" she exclaimed as she clapped her hands together.

Sho frowned at the word "too."

"Who else does magic–? Whatever, doesn't matter," Sho said as he rolled his eyes and motioned Kyoko over to the metal door. He leaned in to whisper conspiratorially to her, "This is my dad's safe room. He told me to go here if anything dangerous ever happens."

Kyoko's eyes grew wide with awe and imagination. "What can be dangerous, Sho-chan?"

Sho stuck his nose in the air and crossed his small arms over his chest.

"Well, you know, I'm my dad's only heir and stuff," he said, self-importantly. "So lots of bad guys want to kidnap me!"

"But you'll fight them off, right Sho-chan?" Kyoko had inquired, eyes shining as her imagination ran away with her. "You'll protect me too?"

"Of course!"

Now, with a slew of assailants with unknown motives actually running around Fuwa Manor, Kyoko was sure that Sho was in that room. What if he had been wounded or he needed her help? And what had he been so secretive about? Something wasn't right, and Kyoko wanted to help her childhood friend and love.

Kyoko ducked under the desk, trying to find a hidden switch or lever. The solid wooden panel on the front and the drawers on the right and left enclosed her on three sides as she crouched, fumbling in the dimness. Only a small strip of pale moonlight shone from under the front panel, which didn't quite reach all the way to the floor.

Sliding across the wood, her fingers brushed something cold and metallic. Feeling more, Kyoko could make out a small metal toggle built into the underside of the desk.

"Found it!" she exclaimed.

"Who's there?" a loud voice barked out.

Kyoko froze. In her excitement, she had forgotten about the intruders. Hidden under the desk, Kyoko's heart leapt straight to her throat as she heard the heavy, deliberate steps of an adult enter the room. Scared to even breathe, she peered under the front panel. Black, rubber-soled combat boots stalked toward the desk.

Fear clutched Kyoko in a strangle-hold. He was going to come around the desk and find her! The boots creaked a loose floorboard as the man slowly approached.

Kyoko cast about herself for a weapon – anything! The desk, her kimono, the chair, her wig – Struck with inspiration, Kyoko grabbed the tortoise-shell pin from the back of her hair.

She had only one shot. Hopefully the man was looking the opposite way…

Heart hammering in her chest, Kyoko lowered her pin to the floor, and with a deft flick of her wrist, she sent it flying over the hardwood to bounce through the door and down the hallway outside.

The second of silence that followed seemed to last for a lifetime. Did he decide to ignore her distraction? Could he hear her heart thundering inside her chest?

Oh no. This wasn't going to work.

Then, with a shout, the man sprinted for the door and raced out into the hallway. Kyoko waited until his voice faded down the hall before all her breath _wooshed_ out of her.

A moment later, Kyoko had closed the office door, locked it, and revealed the hidden room. She was about to pull down on the door handle when she heard voices through the metal.

It was Sho… but who was he talking to? The female voice didn't sound like his mother's…

Slowly, carefully, Kyoko pulled down on the handle and opened the door a crack. The voices were much clearer. The girl was–!

"What about Kyoko?"

Mimori? But why was she here if Sho-chan had asked herself to pretend to be her? Wasn't Mimori at home sick?

His voice dismissive and haughty, Sho scoffed. "What about her?"

"But you two are so close… I don't like her being near my Sho-chan!" Mimori started crying.

Sho sighed, and there was a shuffling sound. The sobs grew softer, muffled.

Was he… hugging her? Kyoko's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. He had never done that for Kyoko… Whenever she cried, she had to leave the house because she knew how awkward he felt…

"Kyoko–"

Hearing Sho call her name, she perked up, and almost called out in reply.

" –means nothing to me. Why do you think I asked her to cover for you today? If she were snatched, no one would care about such a plain, boring girl…"

' _Kyoko means nothing to me… If she were snatched… A plain, boring girl…'_ The kidnappers weren't there for Sho… They were there for Mimori. And Sho had asked her…

It took a moment for the words and implications to settle inside Kyoko's mind. Another moment for her heart to argue back that Sho was her love, her everything… And another moment for her brain to rudely assert that her so-called prince apparently lied to her and used her, even knowingly placed her life in danger.

Her prince, her fairytale, everything she had hoped and sacrificed for... were a lie. Useless. Worthless. Just like Sho had treated her…

Something inside Kyoko snapped.

"SHOTAROOOO!" Without hesitation, the infuriated young woman threw open the door with a loud metal _bang_.

Sho had one arm slung carelessly around Mimori's head, pulling her to his chest. At the interruption, Mimori jerked her head away in surprise. Sho's eyes widened.

"Kyoko?!"

"You… You liar!" Absolutely livid, Kyoko stood in the doorway, her kimono ripped and disheveled. Her black wig was a messy halo framing the pure fury on her face. "You used me! You knew I loved you! And you told me–"

Sho quickly glanced down at Mimori, then sneered at his childhood friend. "Well, it's not my fault. Who told you to go fall in love with me? No one asked you to be so damn gullible."

"…Gullible…?" Kyoko dropped her head, trembling, as his words echoed inside her head.

Seeing her apparently wounded, the proud heir scoffed, "What? Are you going to cry now? Geez, how annoying–"

"Hah…. HA… HA HA HA HA!" Uncontrollably, Kyoko burst into peals of wild laughter. Shocked, Sho stepped back. Mimori whimpered as a cold, unearthly pall swirled about the small room.

"What–?" He muttered, confused.

"What an absolute fool I was… To think, you were _everything_." Wiping a mirthful tear from her eye, Kyoko lips twisted into a sadistic smile. "But you were merely taking advantage of my affection… Playing around with my life…"

Sho took an uncertain step back.

"Prepare yourself, Fuwa Shotaro!" The golden-eyed fury declared brazenly and placed a hand on her chest. The hair of her dark wig swirled behind her, driven by some unknown, evil current.

"I am going to get revenge on you!"

Shocked, Sho hesitated a moment, trying to process. Then, per usual, he buried his apprehension in cockiness and smirked. "How do you think you're going to do that, you stupid girl? I'm untouchable! I'm rich and powerful – and you're nothing, a nobody!"

Sending him another dark glare, Kyoko opened her mouth to retort.

What she failed to notice were Mimori's eyes widening in terror, then Sho's horrified look as his mouth gaped open. But she did notice a large, black-gloved hand had appeared on her right, and oh, there was another one on her left. The arms connected to someone behind her… Kyoko made to turn around.

"Who–?"

The large hands snatched Kyoko, and in an instant, swept her into the darkness behind. She never even had time to scream.

-x-

"Nanokura-san… Nanokura-san…"

Kyoko shifted a little in her sleep, but didn't rouse completely. After all, someone was calling for Mimori, not for her. Besides, her bed was terribly uncomfortable at the moment… She wouldn't mind sleeping a little longer.

"Nanokura-san, it's time to wake up."

This time, Kyoko felt someone shake her shoulder insistently. Groggy, Kyoko batted the hand away.

"Go 'way," she mumbled, her voice heavy with sleep. "Not that stupid Mimori…"

A different voice asked, "What? Ren, what does she mean she's not Mimori?"

"Maybe she's just sleep-talking. I probably went too heavy on the tranquilizers. This is definitely Nanokura Mimori."

Oh, they though she was Mimori? Were they crazy?

Blinking blearily, Kyoko winced as bright light flooded her vision. It was too bright to be the lights in her bedroom. Maybe she had fallen asleep in Sho-chan's room after organizing his–? …Sho!

The events of the evening came flooding back, and Kyoko jerked up with a gasp. Unfortunately, she hadn't seen the man who had been leaning over her, concerned. When she snapped upward, she smashed her forehead into his. Both parties recoiled, hands pressed to heads.

The other voice yelped in alarm, "Ren!"

Groaning, Kyoko blinked repeatedly and tried to rub away the pain. The world sharpened into focus. She was lying in the back seat of what appeared to be a sports car… Bright light spilled into the car from outside, which looked to be a large concrete airplane hangar filled with other cars.

Two men stood outside the car; one was tall, dark-haired, and held his head in his hand. The other had lighter brown hair and was fussing a bit, but stopped when he noticed Kyoko watching him.

"Nanokura-san!" The second man straightened his wire-rimmed glasses with a smile and offered her a helping hand to get out of the car. "I'm sure you're wondering where you..."

He made eye contact with Kyoko.

"Amber?" He snatched back his hand, as if burnt. "But Nanokura's eyes were supposed to be dark brown… And her face looks different…"

Realization struck Kyoko. Oh kami-sama… These were the kidnappers… They though she was Mimori…

The glasses-man frowned, deep in thought, then he began to smirk mischievously. He turned to face the dark-haired man who had recovered from the head-butt and was also quickly approaching the car. "Re~n, did you grab the wrong girl?"

"Really, Yashiro-san, do you think I would make such an egregious error?"

Noting that her situation was becoming less and less favorable for an escape, Kyoko made a snap decision. She dove for the other side of the back seat, fumbling with the door handle before popping it open and tumbling out of the car.

"Nanokura-san!" The tall man called out, alarmed, and raced to the other side of the car. But Kyoko was up in a flash, sprinting as best she could in her kimono, away from her captors. Her bare feet struck the cement floor. There were plenty of options to hide. Several rows of cars – old, new, and various colors – beckoned to her.

"I told you!" she called out angrily from over her shoulder. "I'm NOT Nanokura Mimori!"

Panting, she slipped into a row of vehicles and tried to get her bearings. There had to be an exit somewhere. There! A metal staircase leading to a door!

Fast footsteps echoed behind her. One glance and Kyoko yelped, stumbling forward into a panicked sprint. The tall man was racing up the line of cars behind her, and his long legs made him incredibly fast.

The staircase was 15 meters away, now 10... and then 5. Kyoko snagged the railing just before she felt something clamp down on her wrist with an iron grip. With a yell, she was jerked back, the metal pole wrenched from her terrified grasp.

Panting, she collapsed slightly, not caring that her kimono was open to her knees. The only thing holding her up was her pursuer's unrelenting hold on her arm. She spared him a glance. The dark-haired man was breathing faster, but he was barely winded.

'Not even sweating,' Kyoko noted with a mixture of contempt and despair. She inspected his face further and had to try and stifle the blush that threatened to crest over her cheeks and ears. She had to admit that despite his freakish running abilities (and the fact that he was a kidnapper), he was extremely handsome.

"Ren…! Oh good… you… caught her…." The glasses wearer jogged up, panting from the exertion. He leaned bodily against the staircase while he caught his breath.

The interruption allowed Kyoko to collect herself. Refusing to be so distracted by a pretty face, Kyoko turned to glare at the man who had chased her down. He returned her killing intent with an overly-bright smile. The captive felt an uneasy chill run down her spine.

"There's no use hiding it from us, Nanokura-san," the tall man said evenly. His smile grew brighter and his grip strength only increased when Kyoko tried to wrestle her wrist from his grasp. "You are the daughter of Nanokura Daiichi, famous gravure idol, and fiancé of Fuwa Shotaro, are you not?"

Until his last statement, Kyoko had been contemplating biting the man's hand. However, upon hearing Sho's name, she immediately lashed back.

"HAH!" Kyoko snarled, "As if anyone would want to marry _that_ jerk! His only useful function in life would be to serve as my throw rug, so every day for the rest of my life, I could walk all over his smug, lying, self-absorbed face!"

Taken aback by her ferocity, the man's smile slid neatly off his face, and he almost loosened his grip on her arm.

To drive her point home, Kyoko used her free hand to wrench the long, black wig from her head, tearing out the many clips that had been holding it in place.

"My name is Mogami Kyoko, _not_ Nanokura Mimori–!" For emphasis, she hurled the wig to the floor. Her glare pierced the man in front of her. "And one day, I will get revenge on Fuwa Sho – even if it's the last thing I do!"

* * *

 _geta_ – Traditional Japanese wooden sandals (look like a mix between clogs and flip-flops)

 _obi_ – The sash that ties around a kimono at the waist.

* * *

 **cleocat333** – Thanks for the compliment! Hope I can deliver on expectations! Haha

 **pancakesareabsolutelydelicious** – Thanks! And I absolutely agree with your account name.

 **MWEH** – That's the beauty of AU stories: there's already a pre-conceived notion of the way things _should_ be, which makes it easy to go in and upset everyone's expectations! Muhaha! Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Thanks again for the review! You're definitely my most consistent reviewer and it means a LOT to me. :,)

 **Athena7787** – Haha, anything to help out a fellow procrastinator! And I just realized this, but I guess the title isn't very accurate, huh? The LME unit aren't really "spies" but agents who work deep undercover. Too late to change it, I suppose! Also, "Secret Agent Beat" doesn't have quite the same ring to it…

 **Also, just remember that I will now be uploading on Saturdays from now on!** Thank you all as always for all of your follows, faves, and reviews! They really do make my world go round. Hehe


	5. Chapter 5

Hi fandom fam!

As promised in the previous chapter, I'm switching my upload dates to Saturdays from now on instead of Mondays. This week, we are back in the "present", Kyoko's origin story arc having come to an end.

Also, welcome to Natsu's World of Pain and Torment! Kyoko wouldn't be complete without her portrayal of the teenaged sociopath. ;) And Ren wouldn't be complete as well without a Rick-centric tragedy in the past. However, for this story, I've changed the impact of the tragedy on Ren. Instead of being only consumed by guilt and self-loathing, Ren has learned to cope by channeling his guilt and self-loathing into a deep desire for vengeance. Hopefully it adds more layers of depth to his character… and doesn't turn him into annoyingly-emo Sasuke. Haha

Mailbag and Japanese translations are below per usual.

Hope you enjoy~!

-K

* * *

 **CH 5**

 **\- Present day -**

'Boring… It's all so boring…'

Yumika could practically read the thought on her leader's placid face.

Kitazawa Natsu sighed and tucked her short auburn hair behind one ear. Sitting in the karaoke booth next to Kaori, she crossed her long legs and skimmed through her classical literature textbook.

Yumika felt a nervous thrill run from her pigtails down her spine. She knew that Natsu already understood all of her literature material. That's partially why this new game was so cruel.

Still, Yumika soldiered on with the play. "So~ next question! For 50 points…Who…" Yumika trailed off for dramatic effect, eyes skewering the target in front of her. "Who wrote _Genji Monogatari_?"

Lately, Natsu had been getting bored of playing with the delicate little girls from their school. Such entertainment had reached its diminishing returns. Thus, when the group was out shopping and Kaori had spotted one of their male classmates sneaking around, her suggestion made Natsu nearly pink with pleasure.

The victim, one Takemura Ryuji, battled the tears in his eyes, his lower lip trembling uncontrollably. His hands were tied behind his back, then tied to his feet, forcing him to kneel. Behind him, Tsugumi stepped on the rope to ensure he didn't move. She tossed her straight bangs out of her face so she could better focus on the task at hand.

Natsu had deemed this a "right hand" and a "left arm" kind of play. After all, one had to be careful not to let one's prey escape. But the extra effort had only promised to make this game more exciting than the last. It was one thing to dominate and humiliate a fragile, young girl. It was another to meticulously crush the spirit of a young man.

However, Yumika could tell that Natsu was thoroughly disappointed with the results. And that was really all that mattered.

Also noting that Natsu had gone back to idly flipping through her textbook, Tsugumi pouted at the assigned interrogator and whined, "Yumika, that question's way too easy!"

Glancing back at her, Yumika shrugged and motioned pointedly at their quivering prey as if to say, 'What? That's the best this guy can do.'

Ryuji whimpered and glanced down at box cutter stuck, blade-down in the karaoke booth's fake linoleum floor about half a meter from the center of his legs.

"Contestant-san, you are running out of time!" Yumika said, her playful tone revealed to be a mockery by the malicious smirk that painted her face. She began to dramatically count down on her fingers. "5… 4… 3… 2…!"

"G-Genji…?"

Next to Natsu on the couch, Kaori snickered.

" _Bubuuu_!" Yumika pursed her lips playfully and mimicked the sound of a buzzer. "I'm sorry, Contestant-san, but that answer is _wrong_ ~!"

Ceremoniously, Yumika picked up the box cutter, stepped "50 points" closer toward the crotch of Ryuji's pants, and dropped the knife. With a solid _thump_ , the blade sunk menacingly into the soft flooring. It was only centimeters away now. A terrified scream echoed through the booth.

" _IYAHHH_! No! No! Please stop!"

While Tsugumi restrained the panicking captive, Yumika glanced at Natsu to catch her reaction.

Absolute boredom.

Kaori caught this too and sighed. "Ne, Natsu~!"

Their leader looked up from her textbook.

"You don't need to study that much," Kaori said with a pout. "You always get good grades anyway, especially in classical literature."

Sneaking a glance at the boy, Yumika saw his breath hitch as he fought back tears, but his eyes stayed glued to Natsu. A small spark of hope played across the boy's face.

Yumika nearly scoffed. The fool thought they were going to let him go if they were done with this game.

Ignoring her prey's expectant eyes, Natsu tipped her head to the side playfully, nearly twinkling at her best friend.

"Hmmm, I guess you're right, Kaori. Besides… _someone_ isn't helping me to study at all."

A graceful flick of her wrist, and she closed her textbook with a sharp _snap_. The atmosphere in the room dropped a couple degrees as she stood and crossed the room to face her newest plaything. Suppressing a giggle, Yumika relished that the hope slid off Ryuji's face like ice off a hotplate.

As for herself, Yumika took her cue, jerking the box cutter from the floor and sheathing the blade.

"What game do you want to play next, Nacchan?" Tsugumi asked eagerly, still holding the now limp second-year in place.

The heels of Natsu's school shoes clacked as she walked across the tiled floor. She put a thoughtful hand to her face, tilting her head while she eyed the boy, like a cat considering a particularly distasteful but vulnerable mouse.

"Truth or dare…"

Getting her orders, Tsugumi untied the rope that bound Ryuji's hands to his feet. Even though truth or dare was a Western game, it was one of Natsu's favorites whenever they had a new plaything. Truth gave the group blackmail material; dare gave them more fun – and sometimes more blackmail material if Tsugumi decided to film it on her phone.

"So Ryuji-kun," Natsu stood over her classmate and shifted her weight to the side, emphasizing one slender hip. A strand of auburn hair fell over her face as she smiled from above, eyes devoid of joy. "Truth… or dare?"

Yumika was somewhat surprised. It was rare that Natsu directly partook in the play herself; she usually furthered her own enjoyment by sullying the hands of others. But none of the girls stopped to question her. Yumika stepped back to help Tsugumi while Kaori brought a chair for Natsu to sit.

As for their unwilling victim, though slightly distracted by the bully leader's long legs as she gracefully took her seat, Ryuji paused. Yumika could nearly hear the rusty wheels grinding into gear in his head. She knew he was considering the potential pain behind a "dare" – Ryuji shivered – but another look of horror crossed his face.

Ah, he was thinking about what would happen if he chose truth. Apparently someone would be none too happy if he spilled whatever intel he possessed. Most likely his father, Yumika guessed, based on her understanding of his family situation.

Their male classmate looked up, uncertain and trembling. "D-dare…?"

Yumika and Tsugumi automatically turned to their leader. The verdict?

Natsu smiled prettily and, looking Ryuji straight in the eye, shook her head slowly from side to side.

Giggling, Tsugumi shoved his shoulder roughly.

"Are you brainless or are you deaf?" she asked, exasperated. "Nacchan asked you a question: truth or dare?"

"B-but, I said–"

"Hmmm?" Kaori called out innocently, holding a hand to her ear. "I didn't hear you say _anything_!"

Amused, Yumika watched as realization dawned on Ryuji. The fool had actually believed he had the freedom of choice.

Eyes now twinkling, Natsu apparently also relished the look of utter defeat that crossed the boy's face as he hung his head in resignation.

"…Truth…"

"Mmmm…" Kaori leaned in and murmured to Natsu, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "He's a sharp one."

The charismatic young woman merely smiled in agreement, keeping her eyes fixed on her prey.

"Truth… hm." Natsu pretended to think for a moment. When she next spoke, her voice was low and sultry. "Takemura-kun, please enlighten us. Who were you going to meet at that love hotel today?"

Ryuji visibly flinched. Apparently Natsu had asked the one question he did _not_ want to answer.

"I-I don't know what you mean…" he mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

Kaori's hand twitched briefly, before she smirked and leaned back, watching. The group's "right arm" had been prepared to deliver a swift backhand as punishment for lying, until they all saw the spark of interest in Natsu's eye. Kaori knew, as they all did, that her best friend was going to punish their schoolmate for lying. But not before coaxing him into a false sense of security.

The auburn-haired leader motioned with one hand to Tsugumi and Yumika. Catching onto her meaning, the two girls immediately hoisted Ryuji to his knees and dragged him close enough to lick their leader's shoes.

Uncrossing her slender legs, Natsu leaned forward until her face was only inches from Ryuji's. An elegant hand came up to lightly brush a stray piece of hair off his sweaty forehead. As if captivated by her alluring beauty, Ryuji didn't move.

"Now, now, Takemura-kun," Natsu crooned. "The son of a politician should be able to lie better than that…"

Broken out of his stupor, Ryuji stuttered, "B-but if my dad finds out…"

He blushed as Natsu's fingernail traced the line of his jaw. Appearing to sense a weakness in her opponent, she leaned forward so her face was inches from the boy's ear.

"Don't worry, Ryuji-kun…" Natsu murmured sensuously.

From behind the boy's head, Yumika could see that Natsu's eyes were empty and viciously cold – viper-like.

"Your secret will be safe with me."

-x-

"Goodness, Kyoko-chan, Amamiya-san… Remind me to never get on your bad sides," Yashiro muttered into their earpieces.

Still dressed as Natsu, Kyoko laughed nervously and fingered her Princess Rosa necklace. She didn't know whether to accept the compliment or wallow in shame as she and Chiori traveled back to Shinjuku.

After seeing Makino Honami and Sudo Yuka off at the train station, Kyoko and Chiori had taken their own train, then rendezvoused with their ride back to LME. The other two girls, who acted as Kaori and Tsugumi respectively, had a separate meet up site with their ride, because they were both headed out for another mission in northern Tokyo.

In the back of one of the president's less flamboyant cars, Chiori chuckled at their tech support's response to witnessing via hidden camera their "bully group" at work.

"Don't worry, Yashiro-san. It _is_ just acting after all," she said nonchalantly. "Although it might not be the nicest way to extract the information, it's not like we actually hurt him... physically. I also guarantee that Representative Takemura's son has no idea that we are actually his body guards while at school."

"And apparently you're keeping him out of trouble while outside of school," Yashiro conceded. Kyoko could imagine him shaking his head sadly as he said, "With so much opportunity laid out in front of that young man, I cannot believe he is spending his free time doing illicit drugs – dealt out of a love hotel of all places!"

Meanwhile as Kyoko further contemplated her actions, a dark gloom had settled over her. She mumbled from her assumed fetal position, "Perhaps there will be a good outcome from our time spent with Takemura-san after all. Perhaps he will be too scared to go back to get more drugs… Perhaps he won't be scarred for life and won't have PTSD and won't…"

Chiori sighed, clearly exasperated. Mission in mind, Chiori had led Kyoko at least five blocks away from the karaoke shop before allowing her fellow LME agent to drop her act as Natsu.

Otherwise Kyoko would have reflexively sprinted back to dogeza apologize to their classmate.

The first LoveMe girl watched as a thick, dark shadow loomed over Chiori's face. Kyoko knew that her fellow LoveMe member mentally was railing against their mark, whom Chiori had on many occasions ridiculed as an 'entitled, spoiled brat who thought that money could buy whatever he wanted' – among other sharp-tongued insults.

Chiori struggled to wipe the maliciousness from her visage, clearly bottling up her dark thoughts to later be unleashed on her poison notebook. Kyoko, though usually fearless in the field, tried to subtly inch away from her friend.

Aloud, Chiori grumbled, "What could Delta want with Representative Takemura's son anyway? What could they possibly gain?"

They both knew that if it weren't for the Delta threat, neither would have been bothered to guard such a boy.

"We don't know much yet about Delta's motives. The Dark Moon virus we planted in their system is taking a while," admitted Yashiro. "But fortunately, Kijima-san and Momose-san are both finally out of the hospital this Friday."

Now thoroughly distracted from her dark thought pattern, Chiori shook her head in wonderment. "How those two survived a blast like that with only a couple of lacerations, some rib fractures, and moderate concussions is beyond me. They're lucky to be alive!"

Over the comm link, the girls could hear Yashiro typing on his keyboard to bring up the incident report on his screen. "Hmmm, it seems that there was a delay in the explosion, which allowed the two to run for cover. Also, the suspect's bomb didn't have a very large blast radius. Apparently, the medical examination missed the detonator and explosives implanted in the suspect's teeth because they were designed to be the same density as the teeth themselves– very easy to overlook on X-ray, but undoubtedly difficult and expensive to manufacture…"

"With such high-tech equipment, Delta is probably a very well-funded and large organization," the LoveMe Number Three girl piped up, sounding supremely frustrated.

Kyoko sighed deeply and scrunched her eyes closed, thinking. "They also knew quite a bit about LME. The guy we caught knew about Agent T and my call signs. He also knew about the President."

Maybe that was why Tsuruga-san had been so absent recently. Maybe he knew how dangerous Delta was and was working harder than ever to shut them down. But he could have at least told her – even if she couldn't have helped, inexperienced as she was.

Recently he had been so distant, even though Kyoko had been certain that for almost half a year, they had been getting closer – especially after that mission when Sawara had assigned her to cover for Yashiro as Ren's tech support when he was sick. Maybe that feeling of closeness was only one-sided after all…

"However," said Yashiro, interrupting Kyoko's cheerless thoughts. "Even though it's slow and difficult, the computer virus Kyoko-chan, Ren, and Momose-san previously planted in their operating system has helped while gathering intel. The highest levels of the system are expertly encrypted, but we are able to learn things like who they're going to strike next. Hence, the President has ordered you four to guard Representative Takemura's son while he's at school."

Curiosity piqued, Chiori tilted her head to the side. "Speaking of Tsuruga-san, ever since the President gave the briefing about Delta, I haven't seen him around HQ as often. Is he doing more missions than normal? But then shouldn't you be paired with him, Kyoko-san? After all, you two are partners—"

Hearing her own miserable situation voiced aloud, Kyoko's gloom swiftly returned, even deeper than before. Her muttering grew more and more unintelligible as she descended into her own dark thoughts.

"Delta… Tsuruga-san… more scary than normal… but won't tell me… just a lowly kouhai…"

Back-pedaling at Kyoko's rapid emotional decline, Chiori raised her hands and laughed nervously, "K-Kyoko-san, sorry for mentioning it! Just forget I said anything… Ahaha…ha…"

As if catching the drift of Kyoko's mood, Yashiro piped up via their comms, "Kyoko-chan, Amamiya-san is right! Like I said a couple days ago, you don't have to worry about that guy. Ren might be working himself really hard lately, and not telling anyone what is wrong, and might be more upset than usual, and sometimes going off on his own–"

Chiori was now physically propping up Kyoko to prevent her from sliding off the car seat into a depressed human puddle on the floor mats. Past her gloom, Kyoko heard Chiori hiss a couple of choice words at Yashiro over a private comms line.

Over the shared line in the car, Yashiro scrambled to try and rectify the situation. "I-I mean…. Uh… Kyoko-chan, are you too tired for one more briefing? It appears that Kotonami-san may need assistance with an upcoming assignment–."

Huh. Moko-san? Moko-san needed _her_ help?

"YES! I'm not too tired!" With almost unnerving speed, Kyoko snapped out of her funk and sat upright, eyes shining and hands clasped together in front of her. "Moko– I mean – Kotonami-san needs my help!"

Despite the recent awkward interactions with Tsuruga-san, Kyoko felt her mood brighten slightly. She would finally get to spend some time with her beloved best number one friend and then would go the PSIA HQ to assist the Kimagure Unit later that night.

However, Kyoko's preoccupation was not enough to distract her fully.

All throughout the night, even as she returned to the Muse's costume department after assisting the Ishibashi-onii-sans, her heart continued to feel tight in her chest.

What was Tsuruga-san thinking? How could she help him?

-x-

"So help me, Ren— I will throw you in the LoveMe group for a year!"

Ren tried to take the President seriously, since Lory was actually seriously exasperated with his top agent, and it _was_ a very serious threat. But it was exceptionally difficult to consider anyone serious when they were wrapped in a period-replica Roman toga and flanked by two armless marble statues of demi-gods in the nude.

Trying to ignore the President's bizarre hobby, Ren put on his most repentant face. "President, as you are well aware, up until now no one has ever complained about my ability to act out love."

President Takarada groaned and sunk into his opulent throne, his head lolling against the back as he grumbled mostly to himself, "This naïve, intractable child…"

Ren was slightly frustrated as well. His statement was the truth. None of his fellow field agents had ever complained that his acting was subpar. He had been partnered with several of the female LME operatives on one mission or another, oftentimes involving the two sneaking around under the cover of a lovey-dovey couple. Not a single one had commented badly about him. Much to Ren's dismay, it was often quite the extreme opposite.

He'd had to firmly but politely decline the advances of several colleagues on three separate occasions. One woman in particular had been quite persistent, but the situation had eventually resolved itself.

Even the mission with Itsumi and Kyoko, which may have been jeopardized due to a minor slip-up on his end, had been salvaged with no one the wiser. He had read Itsumi's report on the matter, and Momose-san had been generous to him in her report. Mogami-san hadn't yet been an official LME agent, so she hadn't even submitted a report. So what was the President's problem?

Ren shifted uncomfortably as a small seed of doubt began to sprout in his mind.

Had the President figured him out? He had… hadn't he?

Agent T watched in hidden but mounting horror as the President's hardened gaze shifted toward him. As Ren's trepidation grew, it took all of his self-control to override his instinct to dive out of his chair and sprint for the door.

 _He knew._ The President had done what he did best: he had read between the lines.

Itsumi's report, as Ren had read it, had not placed the blame on the male operative but on poor timing. However, the President had figured out what Ren already knew.

Lory had discovered that Ren had never been in love. And Ren's lack of experience had caused him to act poorly, which, along with some bad timing, had thrown the entire mission into jeopardy.

What a scary intuition. No wonder that Lory Takarada, formerly known as code name Monster, was one of the most secretly decorated and successful covert agents Japan had never known.

A thrill of fear sought its way down Ren's spine. It was only a couple more leaps of logic before the master spy intuited why his top agent had been away from LME so often recently.

Lory narrowed his eyes as if reading Ren's thoughts. Agent T tried to swallow the lump in his throat as subtly as he could. He waited for the guillotine to drop.

Instead the President blinked once and changed the topic. "Ren, why have you been volunteering for those solo missions down in Yokohama?"

A different guillotine had dropped. A much more deadly guillotine.

Thinking quickly, the tall man shot back nonchalantly, "Why did you approve me for those solo missions down in Yokohama?"

"Only the avoidant answer a question with another question."

"Only the uninformed answer questions with sophistry."

With a small, ironic bark of laughter, the President said, "Well, I shall be blunt then. You're taking those special missions, because after all these years and after all your promises to me, you're still trying to find Rick's murderer. "

It took every ounce of Ren's acting ability to fight off his look of surprise. The operative was indeed shocked – not only because every word was true – the President discovered that Ren had been going back on his word. The President had also somehow learned about the link between Rick and Delta.

But Ren was also shocked because Lory hadn't actually uncovered the real reason the senior agent was so frequently absent from LME. Ren was actually leaving HQ for weeks at a time to avoid his assigned kouhai. He hadn't known how to deal with the situation and decided a full retreat was the best solution.

Ever since she had substituted for Yashiro as Ren's tech support on that one mission when he had come back dog-sick, and soon after that, when Ren found the blue rock in her living-quarters…

Wait.

Lost in his thoughts, Ren stalled to halt. Since when had he considered avenging Rick a secondary goal— especially to something as trivial as avoiding Mogami-san?

"Ren."

Wide-eyed in his uncertainty, Ren quickly looked up to see his boss examining him with concern.

"Ren," Lory repeated his name kindly, his eyes unable to hide their deep sadness. "I once told you that only death awaits you at the end of your path toward revenge."

Ren remained silent, still unsettled by his own private epiphany.

"You know how to be consumed by the dark obsession of vengeance. You know what it feels like to lose control due to rage," President Takarada pointed out, steepling his fingers together. "But you have never been consumed by the obsession of love. You don't know how it feels to lose control of your emotions and actions for someone you love."

Agent T opened his mouth to interject.

Lory raised his hand and a wry smirk crossed the man's lips. "And I don't mean those empty flings you had in America before we met."

Ren couldn't respond to that.

"Your love acting is atrocious," Lory continued, not lecturing but speaking nonchalantly, as if discussing a simple fact. "It lacks depth and conviction, because you have never been in love."

The agent was again pensively silent. He knew a frown darkened his brow.

"I have my own theories as to why you have yet to fall in love," Lory said. Ren inwardly cringed as he waited for the other shoe to drop. Instead, the LME president merely shrugged and said ominously with a little smile, "But perhaps we ought to wait and see what you will do about it…"

"President…" Ren began.

Lory dismissed his subordinate's interjection with a lazy wave of his hand. "I trust you will tell me more about the connection between Rick and Delta when the time is right?"

After pausing to consider, Ren nodded silently. He rose from the couch and bowed deeply at the waist. Then, he turned to leave.

Once outside the room, the dark-haired man closed the door, leaned against it and sighed heavily. It was nerve-wracking keeping a solid act up in front of the President. Ren knew that if Lory hadn't pinned his erratic mission choices on his obsession with finding Rick's murderer, the master spy would have sniffed the truth out in no time.

That would have been disastrous. If the President had any indication that Ren was showing interest in a woman, even in avoidance, the "Love-Monster" would have thrown his agent a parade. Or worse, encouraged him to pursue her.

Ren was no fool, though. He knew that his avoidance of Kyoko was the prelude to something… Something he couldn't quite identify yet – but Agent T knew that if there was even a slight chance of these uncomfortable feelings being love, he needed to nip them in the bud, then uproot the plant, and set it ablaze.

Being a good agent, getting back to America, finding Rick's killer – _that_ was the most important.

Nodding his head firmly to himself, Ren began a brisk walk down the hall. He needed to be alone, needed somewhere to think. Ms. Woods always had a small section in the back of her costume department where no one ever went.

Ren stopped to talk cordially with several co-workers who ran into him in the halls before excusing himself. His smile and small talk ran on autopilot while his mind was a thousand miles away.

How could he meet the President's challenge of improving his acting ability? How could he learn to act out love when he had never been in love? When he had no desire or right to fall in love?

Once in the elevator, Ren ran a large hand down his face and sighed. No idea.

At least the President hadn't really stuck him in the LoveMe group.

* * *

 _Genji Monogatari_ – The Tale of Genji is a classic work of Japanese literature written in the 11th century. I couldn't really think of another work that would be taught in a Japanese classical literature class, so I came up with the obvious one. Bragging rights to anyone who can name the _real_ author without Googling it!

 _"IYAH!"_ – a colloquial exclamation, shortened version of "iya da" or literally "I don't like it". It's used as a refusal or "STOP!"

 _Onii-san_ – colloquial term for "big brother" – Kyoko uses it to refer to the Kimagure trio because they're older and more senior than her.

* * *

 **cleocat333** – Yes! Someone picked up on it! You have no idea how happy as an author this makes me – that someone picked up on the subtext of the situation and the emotional/motivational undercurrent. From my understanding of the manga, Sho is not the vicious sociopath that many fanfics paint him as. He's just a selfish jerk whose biggest vices are immaturity and pride. But I feel like especially in more recent chapters, though he is still a nuisance as the third party in Skip Beat's love triangle, Nakamura-sensei is indicating that he is maturing as a person. He does care for Kyoko (but still not as much as Ren does~! Hehehe).

 **ladygraywolf** – Hmmmm, I know that a lot of other fanfic authors have come up with names for the currently unnamed characters. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, none of these names are canon. (sad face) I sense there's going to be an upcoming arc where Sho's parents visit and we'll FINALLY get Sho's father's real, honest-to-God, canon name. Haha Thanks for reviewing and liking the way I have the characters interact. In the future, Sho and Kyoko will butt heads more, but hopefully it's not out of control! If you find a manga chappie with Fuwa's real name, let me know! :D

 **JeremyVD** – I semi-agree! I am totally with you in that Sho is self-centered and selfish. That's his biggest vice (that causes all of his other vices lol), that he is proud and therefore feels entitled to coming out at the top of every situation. However, I disagree slightly because I think Sho (at least in this version) like all of us, says things out of his pride that he doesn't always mean. He can sense that it's going to come around to bite him in the butt in the end, but in his immaturity and arrogance, he can't help himself. Agreed on the final point, though – at this point, the biggest person Sho loves is himself! Hopefully, we will see that change over time. ;)

 **DreamIdol** – Indeed! Hope that I'll continue to amuse and surprise you as the story goes on!

 **MWEH** –I'm glad it wasn't too far of a stretch that the workaholic, detail-oriented, perfectionist Tsuruga Ren made such a big blunder! Haha

* * *

 ** _Thank you all, as always, for your views, your faves, your alerts, and your reviews!_** I'm going to continue to update on Saturdays from now on.

By the way, I've just finished _Ready Player One_ and _Armada_ by Ernest Cline. LOVED THEM. Does anyone have any recommendations for other books similar to these? I really need more audiobooks to help me escape from my morning and nightly commute.

Until next week!


	6. Chapter 6

Hello ladies and gents!

Between CH5 and CH6, Ren has met everyone's favorite chicken. I didn't want to rehash everything from the manga and beat a dead horse, so you can just assume that their conversation played out pretty much the same. Most importantly, Ren asked Bo what being in LOVE feels like...

Also, please don't forget to **leave a fave or a review**! I know fanfic is free, but just think of leaving a short review like tossing your spare change in that tip jar for your minimum-wage-making Starbucks barista. ;) Every cent helps!

* * *

 **CH6**

Despite its deceptive name, the Official Residence of the Prime Minister of Japan, the _Souri Daijin Kantei_ did not house the Prime Minister and his family. Per tradition, the PM and his family actually resided in the _Souri Kotei_.

The Souri Kotei residence was an old, purportedly haunted brick building of the Art Deco-style that had been built before the end of World War II. As the site of one PM assassination and two violent coups, it was said that the Kotei's walls were as rich with history as they were with vengeful ghosts. As the government outgrew the Kotei, the PM and his cabinet shifted its business to the newly-built Souri Daijin Kantei.

The Kantei was a place solely for meetings and diplomacy, not for residence. In stark contrast to its predecessor, the Kantei was a work of sleek, modernistic beauty – all glass and steel and polished, light-grain wood.

Therefore, when the matter of Prime Minister Ogata's 35th birthday was considered, the event planners and Diet members willfully ignored the protests of the Kantei's security chief and unanimously decided that the celebration should take place at the new "residence".

 _Not_ that they were more unnerved by the recent rumored ghost sightings at the Kotei than concerned about a potential security compromise at the Kantei… They just wanted to demonstrate the modernity and class of Japan to the royalty, media, celebrities, and dignitaries who would surely attend.

And since the Prime Minister was the youngest in Japanese history, and a popular man at that, his birthday gala necessitated grandeur. The Kantei building would produce a setting that would not disappoint –unlike the old (and possibly haunted) Kotei.

Thus, on the night of Prime Minister Ogata's 35th birthday, the Kantei was open to those invited.

Dressed in glittering floor-length dresses, tuxedoes, and traditional kimonos, party guests gaped at the main entrance's starkly modern glass walls, which contrasted against the warm maple panels of the high ceiling. Once past the security guards posted at the entrance and across the threshold, air conditioning and cool granite floors swept away the stifling heat of the Tokyo summer.

Members of the Japanese royal family, politicians, family and friends of the Prime Minister, as well as specially invited guests of the entertainment world marveled together at the _moso_ bamboo and _aji_ granite of the Inner Court.

Few ventured past the glass walls into the actual courtyard, since the rooftop had been retracted for the night. While this allowed moonlight to swathe the Inner Court in an ephemeral glow, it also let in the sweltering summer humidity.

Ushered by staff, the trickle of guests meandered up the central staircase and into the Grand Hall.

A little more than a hundred guests milled around the Grand Hall to the strains of a full orchestra. Foreign dignitaries rubbed shoulders with the patriarchs of prominent families and popular, well-decorated actors. Staff dressed in sharply pressed tuxedos offered colorful assortments of Japanese-Western fusion hors d'oeuvres and a variety of refreshing beverages.

Meanwhile, down the hall in a much less grandiose room, Tsuruga Ren tried not to panic.

 **-x-**

For probably the fiftieth time that night, Ren had to quash the urge to fidget with the buttons on his lapel. It was an elegant black suit, a hybrid between an army officer's uniform and a tuxedo jacket. Golden trim traced the lapels and the braided gold epaulettes were appropriately stiff on his broad shoulders. The jacket was complete with modern suit lapels, coattails, and rows of tasteful, shiny metal buttons.

To everyone else in the room, Ren looked regal. In his own mind, he was a confused, tumultuous mess.

To soothe his convulsing emotions, Ren settled for smoothing the black velvet of his military officer-esque cap and straightening the metal peony insignia that rested on the brim. Lost in thought, he traced with one thumb the smooth, white masquerade mask attached to his hat. His slow, deliberate movements belied his racing thoughts.

The chicken must have been wrong. There was no way he could've been right. But then again, his prediction about Ren's… symptoms had been uncannily accurate… But then again, who takes love advice from a chicken?

Ren mentally corrected himself. He knew that the chicken wasn't a real chicken, but an LME staff member dressed in a comical costume, but the idea that an actual human being, one of his co-workers, was waltzing around with choice details about the invincible Agent T's dark past in addition to juicy tidbits about his love life–

Ren stopped that train of thought. He was starting to feel slightly queasy. It was better to just think of the chicken as a chicken. Which led him back to his earlier dilemma – whether or not to take love advice from said chicken.

Around him, oblivious to the LME agent's plight, the room bustled with preparing performers, many of whom (women) glanced at Ren's handsome face then turned to giggle and whisper to one another.

Regaining his composure for a moment, he smiled to a few of them and nodded his head. On cue, all of them blushed and three nearly swooned. Fortunately for Ren, the character he was playing tonight was close enough to that of "Tsuruga Ren" that he could get by without too much thought.

Ienari Ryota – a consummate gentleman, albeit with a slight manipulative streak – had studied formal dancing in the ballrooms of Vienna, Paris, and most recently America. He had returned from his travels to Japan, where he opened his own dance studio.

Since Japanese culture tended to scorn dancing, due to its encouragement of public, bodily contact between a man and a woman, Ryota had a difficult time finding customers. Until one day, he ran into his high school friend, Koiso Aiko. Although, Aiko preferred to call herself Ryota's rival.

After much hardship, Ryota managed to "convince" her to join his dance studio, and over time the business had grown. The invitation to perform at the Prime Minister's birthday celebration was a surprise, but since the party planners had arranged a mid-nineteenth century European theme, they wanted to hire the dancers to perform a couple of exhibition dances. The rarity of Western ballroom dance studios in Tokyo had worked in Ryota's favor.

Ren, as Ryota, was now waiting patiently outside "Aiko's" dressing room for her to finish getting ready.

Having run through his character back story and profile, Ren attempted to next distract himself from thinking about the chicken's _most_ upsetting comment by mentally going through the performance's dance steps. Maria had drilled Ren hundreds of times until he was sure that he could perform the Viennese Waltz in his sleep.

Lost in thought, Ren did not notice the dressing room door opening. A small, gloved hand whizzed through the air and smacked Ren solidly on the back.

A loud female voice boomed out – "Yo~, Ryota-kun! What are you doing near my dressing room? Trying to sneak a peak? I always knew you were a pervert!"

Mentally, Ren nearly jumped out of his skin. To the rest of the room, he merely appeared mildly surprised.

As he turned, he smiled to hide that he was caught off-guard. "Oh, you're done, Koiso-san? I apologize that I didn't–"

Ren's words trickled away, lost, as he gazed upon the young woman in front of him. From the high, side-swept auburn curls of her hair to the elegant loops of diamond and pearl that graced her neck to the royal blue and white satin dress that bared her dainty shoulders and tapered flatteringly at her waist – Ren took in his partner, at a loss for words.

The chicken's dreaded, yet puzzling parting words broke through the agent's best mental defenses.

 _'Just by gazing upon her face… No matter how weary you are, you will feel happy. Deep inside your heart, you will feel a warmth… Normally, we call this "love."'_

At that moment, Tsuruga Ren did not find the chicken's description quite so puzzling anymore. But on reflex, the logical part in the back of his mind argued back, 'But you can't! Don't forget…'

"What? No compliments? I would've thought they'd trained you better in Europe," Mogami Kyoko as Koiso Aiko harrumphed. "As usual, you're no fun at all, Ryota-kun. No wonder you're still not popular with the ladies."

Her hands, cloaked in elbow-length white satin gloves, betrayed her bravado as they nervously picked at the golden braided trim of her white masquerade mask. Aiko, though a whiz at academics and a decent socializer, was deathly afraid of public performances.

In fact, she had proclaimed herself Ryota's rival after he had stolen from her the honor of class speaker at their high school entrance ceremony. Aiko had been the original speaker, but she had fainted on her walk up to the stage.

Ren absent-mindedly noted that Kyoko's subtle nervousness with her hands was a nice testament to that aspect of her character.

"No reply?" Aiko said with narrowed eyes. "Ryota-kun, you're acting really weird today…"

At the mention of his cover name, Ren snapped back to awareness and did the first thing that came to mind. He smiled brilliantly and took his partner's hand in his, leaning down until his lips made contact with her gloved knuckles.

For a heartbeat, Ren was filled with regret. What had he just done? Ryota was a thorough gentleman and knew the physical boundaries of the typical Japanese female. Despite his closed eyes, he could almost sense the shockwave of embarrassment and aversion that jolted through Kyoko's body. However, when he opened his eyes and straightened, he was pleased to see that she had held her character through the onslaught and only appeared slightly mortified. Her mouth gaped open and closed as she tried to retort.

'I wonder if that's Aiko or Kyoko?' Ren thought as he let out a small chuckle. Despite his rash actions, he supposed he could excuse his overly intimate behavior as a comeback for Aiko's taunting. The rest of the room seemed to assume it was simply Ryota's victory. Behind him, Ren heard several women sigh with various degrees of envy, and he was sure that all were red-faced at his open show of affection. Back in control of himself, Ren pressed past his emotional confusion, and at once was Ienari Ryota.

With a kind but commanding demeanor, Ryota turned to the rest of the dancers.

"20:35, everyone! It is almost time for the performance, so make sure you have your props and costumes on properly. Men, don't forget your hats, and everyone, please ensure you have your own masks."

"And everyone," Aiko, mildly recovered, chimed in with an enthusiastic voice. "Thank you so much for dancing with us! We're going to be great tonight!"

 **-x-**

Inwardly, Kyoko was much less enthusiastic.

Firstly, for the past week, she had to endure hours of dancing lessons from Maria, which normally would have been fun and quite fascinating. However, she had to practice with a male partner. She had to hold hands with and touch a man. Many times a day, she prayed that the goddess of female virtue and purity would forgive her for rashly accepting a job without understanding the implications on her maidenly soul.

Also, for the majority of the practices, her dance partner had been Kijima, who seemed to step on her feet at least twice every set. His incessant requests for her cell phone number and jokes about dating seemed to render him distractedly incapable of _not_ stomping her feet into a bruised pulp.

Even worse, on the days when he was free, Ren would be her partner, and though he did not step on her feet, Kyoko grew more and more anxious by the day as her senpai grew more and more avoidant and distant.

Phone calls had gone straight to voicemail. Voicemail apologies had gone unanswered. After all of the solo missions he had been taking, it was almost like concrete confirmation that she had done something wrong.

Secondly, she had joined this mission mostly because it was a chance to help out Moko-san, who was rarely around HQ anymore due to her long-term assignment with the Prime Minister. However, Kyoko had hardly been able to see her friend amidst the preparations and formal briefing, which had been via webcast since Kanae couldn't afford to abandon her post for too long.

Thirdly, "Koiso Aiko" – really? The President had outdone himself this time; the kanji for "love" was in her name _twice_! At least, thought Kyoko grimly, her dress was not the same obnoxiously loud LoveMe pink as her LME uniform. That was probably the Muse's grace and good fashion sense.

Desperately trying to hold onto the vestiges of Aiko, Kyoko tried to shut her inner complaints away in a far corner of her mind – which had been difficult enough before Ren tried to blow a circuit in her brain and their cover with his hand-kiss of death. He was taking his character too far!

Ryota was Westernized, yes, but Aiko was not! As a gentleman, he should have taken that into account! Was Ren _trying_ to get her to drop her character? Aiko, a borderline tsundere with an over-compensated inferiority complex, was difficult enough to portray as it was!

Now, mind-spinning in circles, Kyoko's body worked like an Aiko-automaton, bustling among the women of the dance group, fixing hair, adjusting masks, and boldly reassuring the more timid of their group.

Inside, she fumed.

After a week of treating her coldly, that… _t-thing_ was the first thing Tsuruga-san did? Wait… Was it a test?

…Oh!

Kyoko congratulated herself on her epiphany. It must have been a test, to see if she could hold onto her character, despite his…actions... There was no other reason why Tsuruga-san would have edged along the border of Ryota's characterization in front of a group, most of whom were ordinary civilians, had he not had full, deliberate control over his actions.

'Oh no! Aiko would have hit him or reacted violently embarrassed… No wonder Tsuruga-san looked so pitying after… Was that an NG? I have to step up my game! Aiko… I am Aiko… And Aiko would be nervous.'

As everyone lined up with their dancing partners, Aiko reluctantly trudged toward her place at the head of the women's line next to Ryota. The doors would open, and the dancers would file down the walkway, two-by-two, until they swept into the Grand Hall for the exhibition waltz.

As usual, Ryota was already at his place, having finished his preparations early, and he turned to Aiko. He raised a brow at her shaking hands as she fidgeted with the swoops of glittering jewelry around her neck.

"Nervous?"

"No!" the nervous young woman snapped. Her hands dropped to her sides, but she started to pick at the gold trim around her mask in her hands. She turned to the side and muttered, "Stupid sexual harasser… First you trick me into joining your stupid dancing classes and then use me to advertise, and now this!"

Ryota laughed lightly. Then his eyes lit up, full of mischief.

"Hmmm?" His voice pitched a tad higher, dripping with fake innocence as he tipped his head to the side. He placed his hat and mask firmly onto his head. "Well, if you want to _give up_ and go home, I understand. After all, you don't want to faint again like back in high school, do you? I completely understand."

Aiko froze, mid-grumble. Her eyes narrowed. Slowly, she turned to face her rival.

"What… did you say…?"

Ryota smiled brightly behind his mask and started to say, "I said, you don't want to faint –"

Fury ignited, Aiko shut him up by yanking down on his tie _hard_. Now face to face with her rival, the one man who could drive her absolutely insane, Aiko relished the shock on his face as she ground out between clenched teeth, "No. Never again. I'm going to dance so well tonight that you'll have to admit that I've caught up to you – that we are equals!"

Then realization swept over Aiko's face in a swift blushing wave. Ryota's face – Was he always this handsome? – was mere inches from her own. Hastily letting go of his tie, Aiko turned forward and fastened her mask to her face with its pearl chain.

"Let's do this…" she muttered fiercely, eyes nearly boring a hole into the door in front of them.

"Shall we?"

To Aiko's annoyance and growing suspicion that she had been manipulated, Ryota smiled brightly and offered his arm, eyes trained deliberately on the double doors to be opened in front of them.

'He's definitely too used to being close to women… Definitely a suspicious playboy,' Kyoko noted to herself behind Aiko's mask. Then the doors opened, and they strode arm in arm down the brightly lit hall.

 **-x-**

 _He was mad at her again._

 _"Onee-sama!" Maria was also exasperated. She balled her small hands on her hips and shook her head, golden-brown curls bouncing. "I told you to watch the turn! Even though the beginning is slow, this waltz speeds up to 180 beats per minute. It's not going to wait for you! You need to–"_

 _"Follow Tsuruga-san's lead," mumbled Kyoko miserably. "I know, Maria-chan…"_

 _Maria sighed and dropped the issue, apparently not wanting to discourage her precious onee-sama any further. The LME unit's youngest cultural consultant clapped her hands briskly and flounced back to the front of the room, hand poised over the CD player. "Ready, Ren-sama? Onee-sama?"_

 _Kyoko stepped forward, hands still itching to tear themselves away from the touch of a man. One deep breath in, and then she was Aiko. The only way she could get through all the stifling physical contact was through the outgoing and competitive Aiko._

 _But she could tell that Ren was not Ryota. He was scarcely touching her. Not that Kyoko minded the lack of physical contact, but it was upsetting that Ren obviously wasn't taking her acting very seriously._

 _Also, he was refusing to look her in the eye. As the dance partners resumed their practice, Ren's eyes were firmly fixated a foot above her head. Certainly he wasn't Demon Lord-level angry, but ignoring her was just…_

 _He was definitely mad at her. And it wasn't helping her concentration._

 _"Onee-sama! Watch the turn!"_

"Koiso-san…"

Aiko blinked. Somehow she found herself in the middle of a large room, brightly lit, with high ceilings and a rectangular lacquered oak dance floor overlaying the room's red carpet. One wall of the room was made of glass and overlooked a bamboo courtyard below, making the room appear even larger. Spectators garbed in long sequined dresses and sharply pressed tuxedoes sat and stood around the periphery of the room, craning their necks to catch sight of the unusual spectacle on the dance floor.

At least a hundred people were watching. All of them important, influential, wealthy, maybe even royalty.

Aiko began to panic, the world seeming to shrink in on itself. Her chest tightened.

A strong hand firmly squeezed her own. Aiko looked down. Ryota's hand.

"Koiso-san… I'm here with you," his deep voice murmured from above her. "We will be alright. Just follow my lead… And–"

"Watch the turn," Aiko finished for him and looked up. Past his mask, his smile as he gazed down at her was bright but gentle; longing but confident; excited but calm. Aiko felt her heart beat faster, and a funny feeling writhed in the pit of her stomach. Was it nerves? No… With Ryota here, she felt… at ease.

But this was no time for introspection. Taking a deep breath, Aiko assumed her starting position, curving her arm above her head – a maiden, elegantly frozen in time.

Across the dance floor, eight other young women followed her motions. The room stilled in anticipation.

At this cue, the orchestra, visible on a raised stage on the far side of the room, began the tremulous, lilting strains of Johann Strauss' "Blue Danube Waltz."

In a ring around the periphery of the wooden dance floor, eight other couples curtsied and bowed to each other on musical cue. But in the center of it all, Aiko could only see Ryota. Behind his mask, his dark eyes sparkled in the bright lights, drawing her into their deep tranquility.

As the music picked up pace and as the couples joined together, whirling in a tightly controlled, yet elegant frenzy around the dance floor, Aiko minded the turn and they were off.

 **-x-**

Two minutes into the performance, Ren was sincerely enjoying himself. Despite the fact that the dancing was merely an elaborate ruse to smuggle LME agents into the Prime Minister's birthday party without drawing unnecessary questions; and despite the fact that he was supposed to be avoiding Kyoko and _not_ nourishing this foreign feeling of affection and love – Ren felt his heart leap with every turn and whirl as he watched her.

He knew that Kyoko, though initially enraptured by the idea of wearing a princess dress and dancing at a "ball", had her excitement noticeably dampened by awkward practice sessions with Kijima and himself. But now, the smile lighting up her face was more than just that of Koiso Aiko putting on a show in order to one-up her high school rival. Aiko – and vicariously, Kyoko – was thoroughly delighted, lost in the fluid steps and fluttering turns as the two swept across the floor.

Ren himself was lost, drunk on the sight of her. He felt lightheaded, his heart pounding harder than usual in his chest. Was it the vigorous dance or was it his feelings? Was the chicken right? Was this love?

'Love… Just like Rick and Tina…'

Ren blinked. No. He couldn't – _wouldn't –_ think about that at a time like this. He had a job to do, and thoughts about love, thoughts about Kyoko – they had no bearing on this job.

Still keeping in time with the music, Ren took two quick steps, twirled Aiko, and then as Ryota, whisked her away, a gentlemanly smile plastered to his face.

 **-x-**

Was that…? No… Impossible… But even behind the mask, that wistful smile, no doubt imagining herself to be Princess Cinderella-sama – or some other such nonsense… It could only be Kyoko… Right?

Unaware of the nervous sideways glances he was getting from several passersby, Fuwa Sho continued to watch the waltz showcase with an intense, concentrated glare. He drummed his fingers on the table pensively as his scowl deepened.

One other piece of evidence – her partner! That pin-head spy could change his hair and clothes all he wanted, but he couldn't change his stupid height. –And he was only tall because he wore platform shoes or something. Cheater.

At the climax of the waltz, the man lifted Kyoko up and twirled her around. The rest of the audience gasped in delight as Kyoko's skirt blossomed out before twirling in on itself as she alighted to her feet and back into the dance, all without missing a beat.

Sho caught his upper lip curling in a sneer of utter disgust.

And that idiot man's face! Why would that pretty-boy be making that kind of expression at Kyoko? Was he trying to lure her into his pretty-boy harem? Make her become his fan or something? That plain, boring girl's head might just explode from so much attention. She'd just get swept up in useless one-sided lovey-dovey feelings, and…

Sho felt a surge of rage stir inside his heart. Some other emotions too – frustration? Bitterness? Envy? – _No!_ Sho denied that he was jealous of _him_ – especially over someone like _Kyoko_.

The hotel heir made up his mind. As the orchestra wound down its final strains of the waltz, Sho abruptly got out of his chair and walked to the back of the room, a wicked smile creeping across his lips.

So they were spies, huh? Well, he could do some spying of his own!

* * *

 _Souri Kotei_ – What used to be the White House of Japan – it both housed the Prime Minister and served as the hub of political meetings for the PM and his cabinet. However, there are actually rumors that the Kotei is haunted. There have been PM assassinations there and a handful of shootings. The current Japanese PM actually refused to live in the traditional residence (some reports say that his wife believes in the hauntings).

 _Souri Daijin Kantei_ – The current place of business for the PM and his cabinet. They have a website and I've pretty much described the place as accurately as I could based on the information and pictures given.

* * *

 **Athena7787** – THANK YOU! I spent so many hours re-working that scene because at one point or another Natsu or one of the girls seemed OOC. Glad you liked it!

 **SilverInu93** –You're right in your assumption: Ren was indeed the one who kidnapped Kyoko (in an attempt to protect who he assumed was Nanokura Mimori from the other intruders). And nice! I'll check out the song! Thank you

 **DreamIdol** \- Haha, somehow I think that even if Ren _was_ press-ganged into joining the LoveMe group, he would pull it off with great dignity and poise. Eventually everyone else around the LME unit would be donning pink jumpsuits and it would become a fad. Lol Thanks again for the review!

 **MWEH** – Thanks for your honesty! I'm trying to set up the next arc where Ren is going to start growing feelings for Kyoko. You'll be sure to get more _moe_ and action in the next few chapters! Thanks for coming back week to week!

 **JeremyVD** – Yeah! I totally agree that he will grow up (and he has been in the manga), but indeed he will be too late to snag Kyoko's heart. Hehe, hopefully because Ren will already be there! Nakamura-sensei! Hurry and write more chapters~!

Hope you guys enjoyed! Thank you again for all of your reviews! See you next week.


	7. Chapter 7

Hello all!

My deepest apologies! I had to skip a week between posts, because I absolutely had no time to write anything these past two weeks. This month, I'm working approximately 12-14 hour days every single weekday. So far this week, I've clocked in about 65 hours of work. The irony is that since it's grad-school related, I'm not even getting paid; I'm technically **paying** to be there. It's been probably the most physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing month I've had to live through so far… and it's not even the end yet. Ha…ha…ha…

Unfortunately, there's a 50% chance I'm going to have to skip the update next week as well and only post every other Saturday - at least until the end of March. (Please don't be mad!) April should be a better schedule for me, since I'll be with a different doctor who actually believes in work-life balance. Haha

I do have a treat though! Extra long chapter today~! Tada~! The saga between Aiko and Ryota continues as Ren tries to desperately hide the realization of his feelings from Kyoko. You can think of this story arc as a mash up of the Dark Moon Katsuki and Karuizawa arcs with a surprise twist at the end!

As for you Sho haters, don't worry! He's only going to be around for a few more chapters – just to stir the pot and break the status quo. Then he'll be gone for quite some time (good riddance!). Hehehe

Enjoy!

* * *

 **CH7**

Mesopotamian, Grecian, Mayan, or Chinese… whichever barbaric, ancient civilization came up with the idea for masks had the brilliance equivalent to a thousand Einsteins, decided Kyoko as she hid her darkening mood behind her white masquerade mask.

"Your performance was so splendid!" Cooed the elderly wife of some British ambassador. The woman's snow-white curls bobbed enthusiastically as she nearly wriggled in enjoyment. She whispered her next question conspiratorially. "So? How long have you two been dating? No couple I know can have that kind of synchronization without a _deep_ understanding between one another!"

Masks— the savior of her life and the protector of her pure, maidenly soul! Long live masks!

"My apologies, Lady Ashton," Ryota replied in English with an extraordinarily bright smile. "I believe you are mistaken. While it is true that Koiso-san and I are old friends from high school, we have never dated."

Kyoko felt a small muscle tic begin to eat away at her innocent, I-don't-know-English smile. Dating… dating meant they were in l-l-lov… meant they were going out. Never! Kyoko would never again succumb to the wiles of a filthy emotion like romantic l-l-lo—.

"Now, now, you can't fool an old woman's eyes, young man," the matron tittered, flapping a hand at Ryota. "I've watched hundreds of couples in love in my lifetime!"

Kyoko's mask, her acting mask, was quickly failing her. The white fabric over her eyes and nose couldn't hide the twitch dragging down one corner of her mouth. And no mask could hide her treacherous feet as they began to subtly inch themselves away from Ren.

Lady Ashton however, pleased with herself but quite unaware of the effect her words were having on her Japanese counterparts, continued with a wink. "You should be careful to ask her out properly soon then. She's quite a catch, my dear!"

Masks! Failure of society! So feeble and weak and easily broken!

Kyoko was fighting with every fiber of her conscious being not to drop Aiko like a tub of rotten _natto_ and make a break for it.

As if sensing his partner's growing intent to flee, Ren moved to end the conversation.

"I see your point, ma'am," Ryota said with a laugh, reaching behind his head to rub it in a gesture of shyness. "Koiso-san is a rarity indeed and an irreplaceable part of my life. However, you will have to excuse me, Lady Ashton. I have been negligent of my partner."

Kyoko nearly cried in relief. Her precious Tsuruga-san… Long live her senpai!

Not one to sabotage her own fun, Lady Ashton winked again at Ryota. "Alright, young man. But make sure you think about what I've told you! You two would make a perfect pair!"

Ryota merely bowed in a Western fashion, and Kyoko, following his lead while trying not to show the abject horror on her face, curtseyed in the way Maria had taught her.

As the two walked away, Kyoko debated whether or not to have Aiko ask about the conversation. Aiko, who was not fluent in colloquial English but was insecure about others' perceptions of her, would want to know what Ryota had talked about with the British ambassador's wife, especially if the older woman had said something about Aiko.

Kyoko, however, felt that her mind deserved a vigorous scrubbing after dwelling on the accursed topic of dating and romance. She just wouldn't bring it up, and the subject would die a natural (and much deserved) death.

"Aren't you curious what Ashton-sama and I were speaking about?"

Kyoko nearly jumped. She turned up to glower at Ren. Her eyes nearly narrowed; Ryota wouldn't want to speak about that kind of thing… As far as Kyoko knew, Ryota merely considered Aiko an old friend – and was _not_ interested in more. Was Tsuruga-san just tormenting her? Another test, perhaps?

Thinking fast, Kyoko bought time by curtseying cordially to a few lower house Diet members, who found the foreign gesture amusing. Her hand hovered a hair's breadth above Ren's elbow as she allowed him to lead her around the periphery of the room. Once out of the line of sight of others, Kyoko was back in her Aiko persona and had come up with a response.

Aiko pouted profusely and turned her head to the side in defiance. "No. I don't want to know—"

Ryota quirked an eyebrow in disbelief. "Really?"

"Yeah," said Aiko, crossing her gloved arms across her chest. "Who cares that you can speak common English so fluently? No one. Hence, I don't need to know. Don't want to know. Go brag to someone else."

Eyes full of laughter, he replied teasingly, "Oh, is that so?"

"That is so. Don't forget that I was still the one with the highest score on the English exam right before graduation. I just… chose to focus on other things in college."

Feigning concern, Ryota sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his head to the side. "Koiso-san… You really shouldn't continue to live in your past glories like that…"

Before Aiko could retort angrily, a familiar voice interrupted her.

"Pardon me, honored guests. Would you care for any refreshments?"

A waiter in a tuxedo and crisp white shirt tucked into a black cummerbund offered a tray of champagne glasses. The man came up to only Ryota's shoulder, but his medium-length brown hair was slicked back handsomely. A familiar face smiled at Kyoko.

Kyoko blinked in surprise. Hikaru-san! She had heard from Kanae that the Public Security Intelligence Agency had insisted on sending a team of agents to assist LME with its undercover security and surveillance at the party, but she hadn't known that it was going to be the Kimagure Unit.

Maybe it had been mentioned at the most recent briefing. But considering that she had been focused on trying to apologize to Ren, she had been quite distracted…

But Kyoko mentally breathed a sigh of relief. It was nice knowing that their back up from the PSIA was so reliable. She had gotten to know the three Ishibashi brothers due to various circumstances during which the President had lent her out as Bo—.

Oh no. What if Hikaru told Ren that she was—!

Now quite the opposite of relieved, her heart leapt to her throat as Ren, as Ryota, smiled extremely brightly at the waiter and took a champagne glass off his tray. Trying desperately to channel Aiko as her mind raced, Kyoko stuck her hand up and shook her head to reject the alcoholic drink on autopilot.

Since everyone was pretending not to know each other now, maybe none of the Ishibashi onii-sans would have a chance to talk to Tsuruga-san about the giant chicken who heard that he had a crush on a high school girl, but he was lying to her about—.

"S-sorry," Kyoko distractedly stuttered, clinging to Aiko by a thread and trying to come up with an excuse for the horrified expression that had escaped her control. "I can't. I'm—"

"Not thirsty?" Ryota interjected, over-indulgent curiosity filling his eyes. Kyoko realized her mistake and stiffened. In her haste to cover her previous mistake, she had been about to say 'under age', but Aiko was already 22 years old, already past the legal age of drinking. Even if Kyoko herself were under age, such a weak excuse would not pass the heavenly standards of Tsuruga Ren.

Aiko should have taken the drink, if only to hold it.

Now cheeks aflame in embarrassment at her string of rookie mistakes, Kyoko tried desperately to rectify her error. Despite the fact that it was only Hikaru, it was a strict LME rule to keep up all aspects of the act at all times until the mission was over, except for emergencies. One never knew who was watching or listening.

Ren had drilled into her over and over again that one small slip, one misspeak, could jeopardize an entire mission.

"I-I… Um…. Can't drink that much…" Kyoko eeked out, haltingly. "I don't do well with alcohol… Thank you though."

Somewhat back in control of Aiko, Kyoko gave Hikaru a wavering but appropriately polite smile and turned back to Ryota. She tried to ignore the long, concerned look the waiter gave her as he bowed and continued his rounds to the rest of the room.

"Hmmm, that waiter…" Ryota mused as he raised his glass to his lips. He glanced down at Aiko, and Kyoko felt herself slip a bit at the unexpectedly predatory edge to his gaze. "He seemed quite interested in you, Koiso-san. And you seemed quite flustered at his attention. Is he your type, perhaps?"

'Oh no!' Brain frozen in fear, Kyoko didn't hear the second half of his musings.

That sharp glare… Ren was mad at her again. He couldn't have figured out she was Bo, could he? Not even Agent T was that good. It have must been because Hikaru surprised her, and she made so many mistakes! He was frustrated that he had to cover for a newbie on such an important mission… After weeks of avoiding her, ignoring her during dancing practice, and now, his reaction to her many consecutive slip-ups, he was disappointed in her… Kyoko was sure.

A cold, heavy dread clenched at her heart.

In her silence, Ryota had checked himself and glanced away. "My apologies; that's not my business. What were we talking about—?"

"I'm… sorry…"

Kyoko's thoughts continued to race. For the time being, maybe she could end their partnership on this mission early, so as not to prolong his torment. After all, Tsuruga-san often worked solo nowadays. It might be unforgivable to desert a mission like this in the middle, but she wasn't quite abandoning her post. She was confident she could find an excuse to switch to Moko-san's partner and help guard the PM.

For Tsuruga-san, it would be better not to drag out their current situation, seeing his extreme exasperation with her. She would apologize with a thousand dogezas after, and try to cobble together whatever remained of his desire to train her as his kouhai. It would be best if she could beg for his forgiveness immediately, but Aiko would never bow her head to Ryota in public.

The thought of his disappointment twisted like a knife inside her gut.

"Sorry?" At her apology, Ryota had stopped. His eyes widened in confusion as he gazed down at his dance partner. "What—?"

"I-I…" Aiko fiddled nervously with her gloves.

Was he playing dumb now, trying to cover his disappointment at her lack of progress? All the more reason to retreat for now and try to remedy the situation after the birthday gala.

Eyes wide and pleading, Aiko looked up at her partner.

"Ryota-kun, come with me. Please? Somewhere we can be alone."

Unbeknownst to Kyoko, Ren nearly choked on his champagne.

Clearing his throat, Ryota grimly if not clumsily set his half empty champagne glass on the tray of a passing waiter and offered his arm to Aiko, who settled her hand lightly on the crook of his elbow.

"What… did you have in mind, Koiso-san?"

Kyoko knew that their assignment was to patrol the Grand Hall, but she figured that the security would be good enough with Kanae shadowing the Prime Minister himself, not to mention the Kimagure Unit and Kijima and Momose, who had also secretly entered as part of the dancing group.

She just needed a moment away from everything to quietly propose her plan to Tsuruga-san. Then he could be rid of his useless kohai, if only for the rest of the night.

Kyoko only hoped and prayed that he didn't want to get rid of her permanently.

Catching sight through the window of the bamboo and granite of the patio below, she offered, "How about a walk around the Inner Court?"

She heard Ren heave a sigh from above her and winced.

He was definitely mad!

-x-

'Now, Ren. You will not lose control or do anything that will frighten Kyoko or make her hate you or scar her heart permanently. You will remain in control. You are an adult. Love is merely a distraction from your plans. She is off-limits!'

Mentally coaching himself and feeling quite pitiful, Tsuruga Ren hid his hammering heartbeat behind the smooth, slightly curious mask of Ryota. He had slipped up a couple of times during the night already, but fortunately for him, Kyoko hadn't called him out.

Though Ryota didn't have a romantic interest in Aiko written into his character description, for some reason he had been pushing to broach the subject with her. Once after their conversation with the British ambassador's wife and again after the PSIA agent's interruption, which had so flustered her—

Speaking of which, how did she know that guy? If the profile given by Kotonami-san was correct, that was Ishibashi Hikaru of the PSIA. He was not even in LME, but he obviously knew Kyoko. And he seemed especially concerned about her…

Internally grumbling, Ren moved on autopilot to guide Kyoko downstairs and out to the Inner Court. The minimalistic beauty of the bamboo grove and the cool gray granite walls was lost to him, as he was distracted by something that felt a tad too much like jealousy. Hearing someone gently call his name brought him back into character.

"—ota-kun… Ryota-kun?"

Ryota blinked. "Ah, yes. My apologies. I was merely enjoying the night air. It's not as humid as I had feared."

Somehow without thinking, he had situated them on a stone bench in the middle of the bamboo garden. Soft moonlight filtered through the retracted roof, spilling into the courtyard below and highlighting the jewels that adorned Kyoko's neck.

The girl herself was silent, back upright and hands folded in her lap. The moonlight, though starkly highlighting her auburn hair, cast deep shadows over her mask, hiding her eyes. Now she was the one lost in deep thought.

Ren, however, drank in the sight of her. His eyes softened, and a warmth flooded his chest. One hand, traitor to its master's cause, reached forward to stroke her hair.

"I lied to you."

What.

Caught by surprise, Ren nearly pitched forward off the bench. His other hand took the opportunity to snatch the rebellious member and hold it captive by intertwining his fingers in his lap.

Confused as he was, a sharp pang resonated in his chest at the thought that Aiko had lied to Ryota – or that Mogami-san had lied to him. Unsure of how to proceed, Ren slipped back into the safety of his role. "Lied? What do you mean, Koiso-san?"

Oblivious to her partner's one-man melodrama, Aiko soldiered on, eyes fixed determinedly on the ground below the bench. "I-I lied because I said I couldn't handle alcohol, but actually I didn't want to drink."

"Didn't want to drink?" Ren blinked, taken aback by the unexpected triviality and was now completely confused. Why was Mogami-san bringing up that episode from the Grand Hall? Hadn't he already covered for her? Not that he minded.

"In truth," Aiko glanced down and blushed under her white mask. Ren's heart skipped a beat. "I wanted to be sober, so I could tell you something important."

That statement sent his mind reeling. Something important? In his experience with women, 78% of the time, "something important" usually meant a love confession. Given the need for privacy and sobriety during the conversation and Aiko's growing blush, the chances of it being a love confession increased to at least 94%.

Logic burst through Ren's thought process.

'But Mogami-san would never admit to loving a man, even under the pretense of an act. But 94%... Not even Mogami-san could be that dense as to miss the implications of her actions and words. Then… is this Aiko confessing to Ryota or Kyoko confessing to Ren?'

His hopeful heart started to beat faster at the thought.

Thinking that his silence was an invitation to continue, Aiko murmured, "I think I've realized tonight that…"

Ren waited on baited breath. The blush spread across her cheeks, and Aiko dropped her head into her hands, hiding her face. Ren almost reached down to touch her when she blurted out, practically wailing, "I've realized that I'm a terrible dancer!"

…What…?

Ren could have sworn he heard a shattering sound as his hopes and expectations crumbled to the floor.

Ignorant of her companion's confusion and poignant disappointment, Aiko's ashamed blush grew redder around her ears. The fingers covering her face muffled her voice as her words swept out like an unstoppable flood.

"Even after a year of practicing with you and learning from you… I'm still making obvious mistakes. I know I have a hard time staying focused, and many times, I can get stuck in my own thoughts. You have to cover for me so often, and I'm so appalled!"

Mentally shaking himself out of his confusion and disappointment, Ren cocked his head to the side as realization dawned on him. Kyoko wasn't talking about Aiko's dancing. She was talking about her own abilities as an agent. His gaze again softened as he looked at her, vulnerable and pained, as she admitted her insecurities behind the mask of her character.

Kyoko, as Aiko, paused for a moment. Slowly, shakily, her gloved hands dropped from her face. Her gaze was hollow.

"Maybe…" she said in a small, broken voice, "dancing just isn't for me after all…"

Ren felt his jaw tighten as he clenched his teeth.

No. Quitting was not an option for someone as naturally talented as Kyoko, Ren decided quickly. And who had told her she was terrible at acting?

Taking a precious moment of silence to compose his response, Ren asked, "Do you love it?"

He watched in mild amusement as Kyoko flinched at the "L" word, unable to hide her revulsion behind Aiko. He quickly clarified, continuing her metaphor.

"Dancing – do you love it?"

A small, sad smile grew on Kyoko's lips, and she raised her head briefly to gaze at the clear skies above them. A few resilient stars twinkled beyond the light pollution of the city.

"Yes," she murmured. "It makes me feel more alive than I have ever felt before. I feel like my whole life has been lived for someone else's benefit. But every time I go dancing, I feel like I am finally learning how to do something meaningful for myself for once – not for anyone else. I feel like maybe a new 'me' is being born."

Sadness flickered behind her eyes, and Kyoko dropped her head. Ren could tell as she shifted back into Aiko. She sat more naturally and fidgeted more with her gloves, but some of Kyoko still remained in the elegant bow of her neck and the grace of her fingertips as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Ren sat, captivated.

"I call myself your rival because one day, I want to catch up to you," admitted Aiko. She glanced up at Ryota and smiled gently. "You're such an amazing dancer and an outstanding teacher. It is my dream to one day call myself your equal."

Fully understanding that the last half of her statement was aimed at Tsuruga Ren, he couldn't help but lean toward her.

Aiko, however, had turned forward, staring glumly down at the granite-tiled floor.

"But I think I've realized tonight that no matter how hard I struggle and no matter how fast I learn, maybe it is pointless for me. I will never catch up… Maybe it would be best if we aren't partners for a while—"

Looking at her dejected expression, something inside Ren snapped.

-x-

Fully prepared for rejection or a lecture, Kyoko waited in silence.

' _Mogami-san… You're right. You aren't cut out for acting. It's been so much trouble having you as my partner this past year. I don't know what the President was thinking, pulling a talentless civilian into this work. Such a disappointment… You're not worthy to be my kouhai, especially since you only joined LME to get revenge.'_

Something like that. But she would stay in character as Aiko at least until Ren dropped his act.

Instead, Aiko felt a pressure on her chin, and she realized a large but gentle hand was cupping her face, tilting her to look up at him. For once, Aiko didn't pull away from her rival in annoyance.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Ryota was looking down at her without his mask on – his costume mask or his gentleman mask. His jaw was firmly set as he gazed deeply into her eyes. Aiko felt pressure on her face as one of his thumbs traced an arc across her cheek. Frozen in place, she felt his thumb brush smoothly across her bottom lip.

What was Ryota-kun doing?

His eyes grew increasingly predatory. Hungry and wild. A confident smirk played across his lips. "Oh…. But you have caught me…"

In Aiko's eyes, Ryota was no longer his poised, gentleman self… Something was very off.

Buried within her character, Kyoko noted with growing alarm that Ryota's face— no— these were Ren's mannerisms, so it was Ren's face getting closer and closer to her own. His hand was slipping her white mask up and off her face, revealing the heavy blush underneath.

Her heartbeat quickened inside her chest.

Driven by instinct, Kyoko reacted.

NO! Never again!

-x-

Ren couldn't believe himself. He blinked. Then blinked again.

Mogami-san's petite hands were covering his mouth, pushing with all their might against his face. Somehow he had ended up practically hovering over her torso as she lie on the bench below, desperately using the granite as leverage to push up against him.

What had just happened? Had he really just lost control of his character?

A shocked laugh burbled up from within himself. He couldn't help it – the surprise prevented him from keeping his face straight as he doubled over on the opposite side of the bench. Swells of laughter echoed through the courtyard.

Was this how other people felt whenever they acted as his partner? Manipulated to move beyond their conscious control? What a scary thought! What a scary girl!

This had never happened before. Ren had forgotten himself. Even though he was acting, even though he had sworn to himself that he would never touch her, even though he had sworn on Rick's dead body that he would not allow anything to distract him – he had been led by someone else's acting, and he had responded, unconsciously.

But Ryota was not in love with Aiko, which only meant that Ren's actions had come from himself. That confirmed it, without a shadow of a doubt. The chicken was right.

Ren was in love with Mogami Kyoko.

'Oh. Mogami-san…'

Discerning a dark, foul mood swirling in the air behind him, Ren turned slowly on the bench to face the inevitable wrath.

"Oh, I see…" Kyoko muttered as she snatched her mask from his bashful hands. Fortunately, she had the presence of mind to keep in character as Aiko. "You live in Europe and America for two years – two years! – and you turn from a polite Japanese man into a playboy."

His laughter subsiding, Ren could only listen in amusement as the girl he loved continued to verbally insult him.

"Pervert. Manipulator. Gross. Double pervert," Kyoko continued muttering, the avenue of Aiko enabling her freedom to speak openly. She jammed her mask back on, eyes narrowed into hard slits as she scowled at him.

"My apologies, Koiso-san. Your face was…" Ren trailed off, thinking quickly. Then he looked her square in the eye, shrugged in a heavily Westernized fashion, rolled his eyes, and sighed. "But really, Koiso-san. Is that how you thank someone who's trying to help you?"

-x-

"And that is why you need to be careful when you tell a man that you want to be alone with him," lectured Ryota as he wagged an index finger in the air. "I know that Japan is a conservative country, but not everyone is as respectable as I am."

Kyoko narrowed her eyes. Was this her punishment from Tsuruga-san for putting on a bad act and making so many mistakes? This was so outside the character of Ienari Ryota… it was suspicious. Suspect. Creepy, in fact. In her opinion, the world would be a much safer place without Ryota's unsolicited demonstrations of respectability.

But Tsuruga-san hadn't sent her packing. Maybe he didn't hate her as much anymore… Her heart lightened a bit at this fact.

Aiko would blush and announce loudly that she didn't need Ryota's help, so Kyoko prepared to launch back into the act. However, a voice cut through the humid night air.

"Hah! More like, not everyone is as big of a _cad_ as you are."

The two LME agents whirled around. Kyoko narrowed her eyes into the darkness. The voice was familiar –hatefully so –but it couldn't be!

To her growing horror, her suspicions were confirmed as a tall blonde man in a sophisticated suit sauntered out of the bamboo grove's shadows.

* * *

There were just too many great comments this week, so Mailbag has 6 instead of 5. :D THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR REVIEWS!

 **Guest** –You took the words right out of my mouth. Rutoh-chan wrote "Caught in the Act," which at least partially sparked the plot bunny of this entire story. I love her one-shots, which each focus on the cover of a volume of the manga.

 **MWEH** – Thank you for the compliment! It's always a big pet peeve of mine whenever characters do something OOC in a fanfic. An author spends all this time crafting this amazing plot, but breaks the illusion by inserting their own characters merely wearing the skins of the fandom's cast. And agreed! I've seen too many people paint Sho as a sociopath/rapist with a heavy dose of antisocial personality disorder… Lol.

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – That's really cool! I wonder what circumstances allowed you to perform an exhibition waltz. That sounds like so much fun! Thanks for the compliments and review :D

 **SilverInu93** – Will you hate me if it is actually coincidence? Haha – That's one thing about Sho that irks Ren to no end. Fate seems to continually throw Sho into Kyoko's path, even though Ren wants her to have no contact with Sho at all, so she can move on with her life and repair her broken heart (preferably with Ren, lol). But this arc (and a little after) will be the last we see of that "self-absorbed arrogant B*****d" for a while. ;)

 **deets1** – I'm super excited that you've picked up on the subplot going on with Ren! It's probably one of the biggest character changes I've decided to make, just to up the irony and melodrama at the end. Thanks for the review and hope to see you back!

 **cleocat333** \- Indeed! One of the things I like best about the manga is that the main characters are employed as actors, but everyone is simultaneously putting on an act for others and sometimes for themselves (Ren and Kyoko pretend they don't love each other; Sho pretends he's not interested in Kyoko; etc). It's one of the deep Shakespearean-type ironies that I love about Nakamura-sensei's work!

 **Thank you all again for your wonderful reviews, the faves, and the alerts! It's so exciting to see that people are actually reading this and really enjoy it. Thanks for making my 65-hour workweek tolerable! Hahaha**


	8. Chapter 8

Hello loyal readers!

Bi-weekly update is here! This week brings a new perspective, some action, and a character a few of you have been asking about! I've updated the mailbag since the original post last Saturday, so you can find that below.

If you loyal readers could leave a quick review, I'd be very grateful for any motivation. I feel that my muse to finish this story is lagging a bit. Not quite sure what it is, but most likely just the sheer busyness of life right now.

Hope you all enjoy the chapter!

* * *

-x-

 **CH8**

Sho's evening had been a mixed bag. He didn't know whether he wanted to snap at his father or thank the old man for strong-arming him into attending this event. On one hand, Sho had been forced to fake a smile and pretend to care about every boring old fogey his father had dragged across his path.

Networking. Hah! Sho had no need for networking. He was getting out from under his father's thumb at the first chance he got.

Not only that, but he had been forced to watch his dim-witted and naïve childhood friend get swept up in the claws of some hot-shot super spy who was bound to drop her as soon as a more buxom woman waltzed into his life.

Fortunately, the bright point of Sho's evening had played out right before his eyes. Just when he was considering crashing through the bamboo to stop the sickly lovey-dovey melodrama unfolding before his eyes, he had caught the most wonderful sight.

The Bastard – named such in Sho's mind because he literally had no idea what the man's name was, aside from Agent T, so "The Bastard" worked just fine.

The Bastard had been firmly shut down by Kyoko.

The wealthy hotel heir had been so distracted, doubled over and smothering his snorting laughter with one hand and pounding the ground with his other, that he missed the conversation that followed. By the time he had picked himself off the floor and dusted off his tailored Italian suit, the Bastard was trying to explain away his actions to that gullible twit, Kyoko.

Sho was having none of that. Now, as he stood in front of the two secret agents, 007, Mission Impossible – whatever they were – Sho couldn't help the victorious smirk that crawled up his face.

Kyoko was furious. Even as her childhood friend, Sho had never seen Kyoko angry before that fateful night when she had been kidnapped instead of Mimori. All she had ever been was boring gentle smiles and girlish giggles. Now, her eyes flashed with an unquenchable fury and her mouth twisted into a menacing snarl as she flew to her feet.

Frankly, the girl was scary, almost frightening.

However, Sho was smirking because instantly, by his very presence, he had managed to transport Kyoko to a place where that Bastard couldn't reach her. In her rage, in her thirst for revenge, Mogami Kyoko belonged to Fuwa Sho.

More or less, just like old times.

"What are _you_ doing here, you thief and trampler of the hearts of innocent maidens?" Kyoko spat at the tall blonde.

"I got a proper invite," Sho shot back. "Unlike _you_ , most likely—!"

"Unlike me!? I was properly invited to the festivities—!"

"Hah! Yeah right! Are you sure you didn't come for janitorial duties afterward?"

Sho allowed Kyoko to ramble angrily as he shifted his taunting gaze to the man sitting, forgotten, on the bench behind her.

For a moment, the heir's blood ran cold.

A long time ago, during his first semester in private school, Sho had to hold his own against a group of bullies who'd thought they'd found an easy meal ticket. Only three black eyes and a couple bloody noses had convinced the bullies to never mess with Fuwa Sho ever again. Sho had learned that day the demeanor of lesser men who picked on the weak to prove their strength to themselves. Scavengers.

But now, the steely, murderous look on the face of the man sitting before Sho was not that of a scavenger. This was an apex predator.

Sho felt a nervous twitch at the corner of his mouth, and his smirk widened on defensive reflex. Always better to bluff than run away.

"—properly working. And I have enough to worry about without you interrupting me," Kyoko snapped and poked an angry finger into his chest.

"What?" Sho cut in, now desperately ignoring the enraged man behind Kyoko. "Is all this _dancing_ really supposed to help you get your sweet, sweet revenge on me?"

The young woman opened her mouth to retort, then stopped short. She looked away, almost guiltily. Her amber eyes grew dark, conflicted. "I…"

"Hah! You aren't forgetting your vow so soon, right?" He scoffed. "That you were going to dig up some dirt on me that was so _terrible_ that it would – what did you say – 'turn my dreams to dust'? Eh, Kyo—?"

"Koiso-san."

Sho's head snapped up. Agent T was standing, and Sho braced for the violent onslaught sure to come his way. Instead, Sho noticed the man had completely changed appearances. The murderous rage had been wiped as neatly off his face as a coffee ring under a damp cloth.

Rather, the tall, dark-haired man tucked his gloved hands politely behind his back and tilted his head to the side, inquiring.

"Koiso-san, I do not believe that I am acquainted with your… associate," the man stated cordially, a polite smile on his face.

Sho inched a step back, disturbed. He quickly turned back to Kyoko, hoping to regain control of the situation by restarting his argument with her. Instead, Kyoko had somehow morphed into yet another stranger.

His childhood friend still had familiar aspects about herself, but her bearing was completely different.

Mature, intelligent amber eyes calmly looked him up and down, and a displeased sigh left her lips, but that was it. A graceful hand smoothed back her hair, and deft gloved hands repined the awry wisps.

Kyoko – or this girl, whoever she was – didn't even look at him as she waved a careless hand his way and stated shortly, "Fuwa Sho, friend of a friend. Never got along with the guy."

"W-wha—!"

"I don't know, Ryota-kun. He's just some rich punk who hung out with one of my college friends."

Sho stood agape. He didn't even know where to begin. Kyoko was still in high school, if she was even still attending school! And what was up with this fake backstory?

"Well," mused The Bastard with a small bow. "I suppose it's nice to meet you, Fuwa-san."

Sho felt his fingers curl into a fist at his side. He didn't know what this feeling was, but he didn't like it.

It felt like getting lost on the way coming home. It felt like the day his father told him that he was never going to be a musician. It felt wrong. Wrong in a hundred ways.

"You…" Sho broke into a wide sneer at his childhood friend. "You coward."

Kyoko froze, then open anger began to flood her face again. She was becoming more recognizable by the second as her facade melted away. "What did you say?"

More confident, Sho announced with a punctuating jab of his finger, "Yeah! Go run away into your fantasyland of make-believe. Anything to make you feel better, because you know that you'd never be able to drive someone like me into a corner!"

"You—!"

"Fuwa-san."

The hotel heir startled as he felt a strong hand clamp down on his wrist. When had that Bastard moved?

"Fuwa-san." Agent T's voice was even, but his eyes held a hardened glint. "I would recommend that you refrain from speaking to Koiso-san in such a manner."

Realization struck Sho, and it suddenly felt as if he had swallowed a pile of rocks.

The only reason a man like Agent T, an apex predator who could have anyone he wanted, would be so possessive over Kyoko was because he actually… liked her?

This, Sho could not allow to stand. Kyoko was _his_. His to taunt and manipulate. His to enrage. She was _his_.

"Oh yeah?" Sho snapped and wrenched his wrist from the operative's grasp. He glared (only slightly) upward at the other man who glared right back. "Anything you do to me, once my dad hears about it—!"

The agent chuckled darkly. "Hmmm? Hiding behind your father's back?"

"Um, Ryota-kun—" Kyoko insistently tried to interject.

"One moment, Koiso-san."

"I am _not_! I can fight my own battles without that shitty old man!"

Kyoko tried again. "Ryo—"

But Sho talked over her, "Besides, you're the real pathetic one!"

"I am very curious," Agent T responded, "how you think _I'm_ the pathetic one here."

"For example!" Sho declared haughtily. "I can't believe you fell in love with such an ugly, boring girl like her."

A pregnant pause lingered in the humid night air. Both men slowly turned to face the subject of their conversation.

Luckily or unluckily, she was no longer there.

-x-

Agent M double tapped the flesh-colored comm link in her ear. She crouched and rolled her head around the corner to take a peek down the long hallway. Regal crimson carpet stretched from the elevator behind her down the well-lit corridor.

Empty.

"Yashiro-san," Kyoko hissed. "I'm breaking cover."

Instantly, she heard the comforting _click-clack_ of furious keyboard typing. The junior agent knew that Yashiro was bringing up her tracker and corresponding video feed on his screens back at HQ.

"Kyoko-chan, what's wrong?" Yashiro responded. "Did you see something?"

"Yes. Can you review the camera feed for Hall 2B from the last minute?" Kyoko whispered and took another glance down the hallway, counting. The hall branched off into five doors. Most likely meeting rooms. "I'm following two males. One adolescent and one older, around 20 years-old. Both with dark hair."

"Give me a second. Where's Ren?"

Kyoko paused before she whispered, "He's preoccupied right now."

Thankfully, sparing her further inquiry, Yashiro's computer beeped. "Last door at the end of the hall. They went in 42 seconds ago."

With one hand, Kyoko hiked her skirt up, and with the other she reached down to pull her firearm from her thigh holster. The modified Glock 0.40 semi-automatic handgun shone dully in her hands as she quickly checked that the safety was still on.

Rubber bullets soothed many a Japanese politician's worry when PSIA agents first started arming themselves, and the gun allowed Kyoko to feel much more at ease as well, especially with the Taser built into the gun's handle.

"I'm just going to check. Watch my back, please."

"Will do. Be careful."

The agent crept forward, one silent step at a time. First was a pair of doors on her left and right; Kyoko stopped to listen at both, placing a light hand on the doors to detect any subtler vibration produced by whispers, before moving on. The door to her right indicated quite a few voices, mostly male, talking quickly in hushed tones.

Kyoko quirked a brow. A secret political meeting of some sort? Not her priority right now.

"I'm going to ping Ren," Yashiro murmured into her comm. Kyoko could only nod so he could see on the security camera.

Fortunately, the last set of doors nearest to her target was silent. No voices, no vibrations. The operative knew that she didn't want many people nearby since she was uncertain about the situation's outcome.

Trying to let her dress rustle as little as possible, Kyoko shifted so that her back was against the wall closest to the final door. She heard voices from this door, two distinct male voices. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head toward the door and allowed the audio-enhancing program in her earpiece to amplify the sound waves.

Static… "what are… doing here…?" Thump. A yelp. "Work... don't want… interruptions…" Silence. "No, wait! Stop! STOP!"

Kyoko's eyes flashed open. She didn't need the amplification program as she heard the screams clearly from the other side of the door. And she recognized those terrified screams.

"Yashiro-san, I'm going in—"

"Kyoko-chan! What? No, wait! Ren knows where you are. Stay put until–"

Ignoring him, Kyoko already had one hand on the polished door handle. Her other hand held her gun behind her, hidden in the folds of her skirt. Better to take the attacker by surprise than to prompt a hostage situation.

Yukihito was still talking to her.

"He said he's less than three minutes away. I repeat, stay put—"

Another scream— blood-curdling this time. Kyoko stopped hesitating and turned the handle, pushing the door open.

A black void greeted her; the lights in the room were off.

"H-hello…?" Aiko called out timidly as she stepped into the room, her eyes adjusting to the darkness too slowly for her taste.

A figure faded into view.

"Who…?"

He was immediately recognizable. After all, Natsu had tormented him only two weeks ago. And Natsu would be loathe to admit that Takemura Ryuji now seemed much more terrified than he ever had in her care.

Ryuji stared at Koiso Aiko with wide, frightened eyes, his expensive tuxedo torn and bloodied. He was hog-tied with what looked like an expensive designer tie. Black dress socks stuffed into his mouth muffled his screams for help. Judging by his bare neck and feet, Kyoko guessed that both clothing items were his own.

He must have come with his father for the PM's birthday, noted Kyoko from a distant portion of her mind.

"Do stop struggling," intoned a voice. Aiko's head snapped up.

Another man loomed out of the darkness. He cast a withering glare at the teenage boy writhing, bound and gagged on the floor. Kyoko's quick eyes observed the tall, lanky man leaning against the room's conference table. Dark black hair and purple eyes gleamed in the scant light from the hallway.

"I even gave you the lowest dosage and everything—. Oh, and now you've fainted…"

Kyoko took a precious moment to glance at the teenaged boy on the floor. His chest rose and fell slowly – too slowly for Kyoko's liking. As she looked back up at the strange man, she knew that she would have to get Representative Takemura's son medical attention, and soon.

But first things first.

The man eyed Aiko, clearly bored. "So… what? Are you going to scream and run or something?"

"I-I…" Turning to ensure her gun was still hidden, Aiko took a wavering step backward. Her high heel appeared to catch in the carpet and she stumbled.

He sighed and stepped toward her, lazily reaching out with long, spindly fingers.

Kyoko acted.

With her spare hand, she knocked aside the man's reach for her, then grabbed his wrist and rotated harshly. In a single fluid motion, Kyoko yanked his arm toward her while using her arm's momentum to propel her heeled foot into his chest.

"Oof!"

Planting her high heel squarely on the ground, she pivoted sharply. Soon enough, the man lay dazed on the floor, the victim of her _Aikido_ throw.

Kyoko felt a small, sharp twinge on the back of her ankle, but thought nothing of it. She was right where she wanted to be – between her attacker and Takemura-kun. Having a hostage situation was much less likely now.

The man was coughing, and he tried to rise from the ground. Dropping her costume mask to the floor, Kyoko brought up her gun.

"Don't move. Stay on the ground. Hands where I can see them," she barked authoritatively. Then Agent M's eyes widened.

Her attacker's dark hair slid neatly off his head in one piece, revealing silvery, shoulder-length locks.

"Hmm. It looks like the wig came off," the tall man mused as he rose, completely ignoring Kyoko's commands. Facing away from her, he brushed off the sleeves of his dark suit. "Oh well. I really hated that thing anyway."

Blinking back her surprise, Kyoko flipped off the safety of her gun. "Hey, you! Visual kei guy! I said, don't move."

The light-haired man froze, then turned to look over his shoulder at Kyoko. A cold finger of fear traced itself down her spine. She swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly and inexplicably dry.

Leisurely, the strange man turned to face her and took a step forward, cocking his head to the side. "Why should I not move? Will you do something to me if I don't obey you, little girl?"

Kyoko didn't reply. Rather, she couldn't. Her brain sent the message to her mouth and tongue, telling them to form words, a retort, a scream – anything! But nothing came out except a weak, high-pitched rattle.

Her hands shook in her effort to pull back the trigger and fire the rubber baton round straight into the creep's chest, but the Glock, incredibly and inexplicably heavy, simply toppled out of her trembling hands.

"Hm. LME, I'm guessing." The man drew nearer. "You really are a simpleton for trying to take down the leader of the Vie Ghoul Assassins alone."

Nonchalantly, he kicked her gun aside with the tip of his shoe. Through a thick fog, Kyoko heard it skitter across the room. Her eyes wouldn't move, frozen and fixed on the silver-haired man.

He loosened his formal tie and unbuttoned the top of his shirt until his thin, pale chest peeked out. From his back pants pocket, he produced an empty syringe and waved it before her face.

Kyoko's thoughts leapt to the pain she had felt in her ankle.

"It's something of my own concoction. A fast-acting paralytic and slow-acting sedative…" He reached out to tilt her chin up. His nails were all filed to a sharp point. "It's so you can feel the utmost fear of losing control before you go to sleep, completely unable to fight back against whatever I do to you next…"

Kyoko tried with all her might to rip her face out of his clutches, but her body no longer obeyed her. Her mind was growing muddier by the second.

Yashiro-san… he had called Tsuruga-san… Had it been three minutes yet? Kyoko's consciousness wavered on a cliff's edge, the abyss reaching out with cold tendrils to take her.

"Now sleep, little boring girl…" She heard the man murmur. "I'm sure Delta can't wait to meet you."

'Delta? He's with Delta?' Kyoko thought groggily. 'But…Don't worry. Tsuruga-san is coming… He'll… come for… me…'

A thud, but not her body hitting the ground. Yelling. Scuffling, fighting, cursing. A hazy curtain started to close in from her peripherals. She was falling.

"Kyoko!"

Something warm caught her. Kyoko blinked groggily, the dim light swimming before her. A face… She reached up to touch it, her fingers lightly caressing his jaw-line.

"Tsuruga…san… You came after all," she said, a small smile crossing her lips.

"… Goddammit… HEY KYOKO, SNAP OUT OF IT!" Someone was rudely clutching her arms and shaking her. And she recognized that voice…

The agent's eyes flew open, venomous and heady rage pulling her swiftly from the clutches of her attacker's sedative.

"Sho…TARO!"

To Sho's credit, he never imagined that immediately after almost fainting, Kyoko would have the wherewithal to slap him.

"Don't touch me, stupid Sho!" Kyoko snapped at him, picking herself off the floor, only a slightly trembling weakness in her limbs. "What are you doing here!"

"What am _I_ doing here?" Clutching the red handprint on his cheek, Sho stumbled to his feet. "I'm saving your ass, that's what! Who is this creep?"

The poisoning Delta agent! Kyoko whipped around to see a huddled mass on the floor. The man's silver hair hung down around his face as he bent, doubled over and clutching his stomach.

"Hm." Kyoko raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "So you actually did learn something from those self-defense classes your father put you through."

"What!" Sho ground out, "Is that all the thanks I get after saving you from this pervert?"

Livid, Kyoko whirled on him and swept a hand through the air for emphasis. "I will _never_ thank you. As long as I live, I live to bring you kicking and screaming down to the depths of Hell along with me! All your hopes and dreams in this life are _mine_ to destroy!"

"Hmm? It turns out you're not such a boring little girl after all."

The two whipped around. Having straightened up while they bickered, the silver-haired man was reclining against the conference room's wall. He was still breathing heavily, but he smiled at Kyoko, a cold and cruel smirk. To her shame, her body instinctively took a small step back.

"It would seem your paralytic already wore off. But a treat for me… Your aura is so deliciously dark and thick with rage," the trained assassin murmured sensuously as he used the wall to stand to his feet. "The name is Reino. It's a pleasure to meet you."

-x-

* * *

No Japanese notes this week, but… Did you know that the effects of chemical sedatives can be overridden or ignored by the injected person if the person is experiencing a heightened emotional state? AKA: Kyoko getting furious at Shotaro. Hahaha

-x-

 **MAILBAG** – 6 replies this week, since I'm late and there were a lot of great reviews last chapter!:

 **MWEH:** Oh wow! You're right! That little possessive particle must have snuck in there via subconscious desires ;) "Her Tsuruga-san" indeed! Thanks for being so supportive and time-flexible! And hopefully this chapter shed a little more light on how Kyoko threatened Sho. Thanks as always for all of your reviews!

 **SilverInu93** : You have no idea how happy your review made me! I feel like as a writer, I'm really lacking in the humor department. I know what _I_ find funny, but I have a hard time figuring out what other people find "roll on the floor laughing" funny. Thanks for the compliment!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** : Very cool! I used to watch Pride and Prejudice religiously with my mom when I was younger (the BBC version, not the Kiara Knightly one). The dances are so elegant and have so many political and social undertones. It does look like a good calf workout though! ;) Thanks for the review!

 **cleocat333** : Haha, I'm really glad you enjoyed that scene! It was fun to write, just imagining how Kyoko would react in such a situation. If it weren't for the fact that she was acting at the moment, she might have melted into the floor!

 **Shizuhoe** : Thank you so much for the compliment on the writing style. I've been reading my old fanfics and I like to think that as I have been maturing and growing as a person, so my writing style has improving over the years! Aaaaand, consider your question about Reino answered! ;)

 **JeremyVD:** Did you see Kuon make a brief appearance in this chapter? Haha – And the great/terrible thing about Skip Beat is the romantic tension! It wouldn't be so MOE if it weren't for the fact that Kyoko and Ren were dancing around each other constantly (pun/irony not intended haha).


	9. Chapter 9

Hello loyal readers!

Thank you all so much for the reviews and the love. This week, the story has brought a surprise… I hope you all enjoy!

I really want to thank everyone who has supported me with their thoughts and encouragements via reviews this past month. Thanks for your patience and willingness to wait for the next chapters to come. March has been one of the most frustrating but also one of the most rewarding months of PA school so far, and even though I didn't end up writing a single chapter last month, I feel even more pent up energy to write this month (because I actually have time).

Just read over the story arcs I have planned until the end, and I'm really excited to get it all on "paper" and share it with you, my loyal readers! :]

My goal is to go back to posting once a week; however I won't post unless I've made significant progress on a chapter that week. Wish me luck :D

* * *

 **CH9**

 _"I can't believe you fell in love..."_

As much as Ren hated to admit that anything Fuwa said was correct, his hammering, panicky heartbeat agreed fully. Never had Ren run so fast in his life as he dashed through the empty halls of the _Kantei_.

While the wealthy and powerful mingled upstairs, Ren was an emotional but speedy wreck.

Five minutes of him frantically searching for Kyoko. Two minutes since Yashiro had broken radio silence, informing him of Kyoko's dangerous predicament. The longest one hundred and twenty seconds of his life.

But Ren knew that this feeling, this fear hanging heavily on his chest, was a liability. Already, he'd almost taken two wrong turns even though he had thoroughly memorized every inch of the Kantei's blueprint before the mission. He'd broken cover, bumping into more than one of the PM's birthday guests. His mission to guard the PM and to patrol the Grand Hall was in jeopardy.

All because he loved her.

Ren knew that if he continued in this way, sloppy with uncontrollable emotion, he would never return to America. Rick's killer would never be brought to justice. And Ren would never get his revenge.

And that would not do.

With a cold resolve, Ren forced himself to slow to a trot then a brisk walk and pulled his weapon from the waistband of his pants. He had reached Hall 2B.

"Ren! What are you doing? Hurry up! Kyoko-chan is–"

Muting the comm link in his ear, Ren effectively tuned Yashiro out. Holding his gun up, Agent T put his back against the wall and edged toward the door, mechanically performing the training-mandatory checks behind him at every three steps.

She's just another partner. She's just another girl. She's just another operative. Just like everyone else.

The door at the end of the hallway was slightly ajar, and muffled shouts echoed down the hall toward Ren. Every fiber of his being tugged at him. _Hurry, hurry, hurry_ … But Agent T purposefully paused at the threshold, listening to the voices within.

His eyes widened in shock. The brat had left to look for Kyoko too, but… Ren had forgotten that he had run in this direction.

No… It couldn't be.

Caution completely abandoned, Ren swept the door open with one foot, gun poised mid-air.

An unconscious high-school boy lay by the door. Kyoko was checking his pulse. Another man with bizarre silver-blonde hair hung bloody and beaten, held aloft at the collar by a furious Fuwa Sho.

Ren was about to step forward when the beaten man spoke.

"Maybe I should do something so unspeakably intimate to you, Kyoko," the man murmured, his purple eyes turning to coolly wander Kyoko's small frame. "That you'd want to chase after _me_ and drag _me_ down to Hell instead of this guy."

All Ren saw was Kyoko shudder and recoil, hurt and fear flashing across her face. Fuwa's fist was rising to strike again, but Ren moved faster.

A quick, ruthless open-handed strike to the right temple, and the creep crumpled to the floor.

"Tsu—! T-san!" Kyoko cried happily. Ren watched as the radiant smile on her face drained quickly into horror as she glanced uneasily between him and Fuwa. "W-what are you doing here?"

Ren felt as if he had been kicked in the gut.

"Heh." The cocky hotel heir barked a short laugh, unfisting his hold on the unknown assailant's collar. "I guess she forgot who her partner was, since he never came to save her…"

It was all chance, Ren reasoned with himself as he grasped for composure. It was chance that Fuwa had gotten to her side first. That Ren had run in one direction and Fuwa had run in the other. It wasn't fate or an irrepressible bond drawing them back together. It was mere chance.

"While you were busy running around," the Fuwa bastard crooned smugly, "who do you think saved her from the hand of the devil, huh?"

Kyoko was silent, unable to refute the truth of the situation. She looked up at Ren with wide, fearful eyes. She reached a hand out. "T-san… I—"

Fuwa's smug face, Ren's own helplessness, Kyoko had gotten hurt. His own selfish hesitation had gotten her hurt. It was all too much.

Ren whipped back around, out the door. Pressing a finger to his comm link, he barked, "Yashiro, get covert medical and back up in here stat. We have two unconscious; one of them is a hostile. Agent M and Fuwa Sho need medical treatment. I'm going back to patrol the Grand Hall."

Ren clicked off his comm, cutting off Yashiro's reply.

"T-san!"

Agent T heard a pattering of footsteps behind him. Despite his inner turmoil and against his better judgment, his heart leapt in his chest. He would be able to recognize those footfalls anywhere. He stuffed his emotions back down.

"Back in character," Ren ordered coldly without turning around. "And stay here. I… need to be alone for a while…"

He stayed fixed forward, head bowed. He didn't want her to see the ugly jealousy mingled with self-loathing written plainly across his face. Ren knew that Fuwa felt as though he had won because the brat hadn't followed Kyoko out of the room. That only infuriated the agent more.

However, as Ren turned to walk down the hall, one of the doors closest to the elevator opened and five or six men in suits walked out and toward the elevator. Automatically, Ren and Kyoko bowed and curtseyed as Ryota and Aiko. Several of the men harrumphed and shot them suspicious looks. The rest ignored them.

Just as Ren was about to start for the stairs next to the elevator, two more occupants emerged from the room. One was a man of average build with wire-rimmed glasses and a small widow's peak beneath his black, slicked-back hair. He gave the two dancers a small nod before holding the door open.

A middle-aged woman stepped through the threshold into the hallway. The first thing Ren noted about her was that, objectively, she was quite attractive. Except… the strict way she held herself, the severe black bun pulled up without a single stray hair, and the coldness in her eyes – Ren felt himself unconsciously stiffen under her scrutinizing gaze.

Though the woman's face remained smooth and impassive, Ren had a feeling that she did not like what she was seeing.

Then her gaze shifted behind him. Immediately, her brow creased down the center, forming a deep furrow. Displeasure radiated from her face, and she turned away, walking briskly next to her companion to the awaiting elevator.

Only once she was in the elevator and the doors began to close did the woman look up again. Her stare was unwavering, the frown still etched deeply onto her brow.

The doors closed and the elevator car began to descend.

Ren heard a small, broken whimper from behind him.

"O…Okaa-san…?"

Kyoko's quavering tone was enough to cause Ren to whip around. Her Aiko persona forgotten, Kyoko stood alone in the middle of the long hall, white knuckles clutching a swathe of her gown in front of her. Her face was unnaturally pale, as if she had seen a ghost.

Ren knew then that he could not leave her. His pride was not worth the stricken, despairing look in her eyes.

"Koiso-san! Ienari-kun!"

Ren's head snapped up. Kijima and Momose were briskly walking toward them, pleasant smiles hiding their true concern. A couple miscellaneous janitorial staff hurried after them, trying to look unassuming as they pushed a small cleaning cart that Ren knew contained a foldable stretcher and medical supplies.

Making a snap decision, Ren pointed the medical crew toward the correct room with a slight jerk of his head. He smiled brightly to the other two LME agents, turning his body to hide Kyoko.

"Sorry to worry the rest of the troupe, Tanibachi-san and Yutani-san. Koiso-san was feeling slightly under the weather, so we were trying to find some fresh air."

Agent T's luminous smile excluded any objections.

Itsumi was the first to recover. She sighed gently and placed a demure hand to her cheek. "Oh dear, Koiso-chan! Was it nerves?"

"You don't need to worry so much, Aiko-chan! You looked splendid out there! Radiant even!" Kijima's "Yutani" crowed.

Before Kyoko was forced to respond, Ren mused, "Ah, yes. We ought to be returning now. Feel free to wander around a little bit more, you two. The grounds are quite fascinating."

With that and a short bow, Ren smoothly but hurriedly ushered the compliant Kyoko down the hall toward the privacy of an enclosed stairwell, leaving the other two agents to secure the hostile, the unconscious teen, and Fuwa Sho.

The door clicked closed behind them, shutting both inside the thick barrier of the concrete stairwell. Ren glanced down at his kouhai and noted with relief that color was returning to her face. But his hand still lingered on the small of her back.

"Yashiro-san, camera check outside of Hall 2B," Agent T murmured into his comm link. He heard a pause as his tech support searched through the various cameras for other people in the area. Ren knew the pause was lengthier than usual as Yashiro contemplated making a snarky remark about helping even though the agent had just ignored him twice. Fortunately for Ren's pride and Kyoko's sake, Yukihito kept his comments to himself.

"All clear," came the eventual reply. "I'll keep watch."

"Thank you," Ren murmured, genuinely grateful.

Kyoko exhaled, crumpling to lean against the concrete wall behind her. One of her gloved hands came up to cover her mouth.

Ren stood nearby, ready to catch her in case she fell – but also strongly fighting the urge to snatch the shaken girl into his arms and hold her tightly.

He knew about Kyoko's mother from bits and pieces that he'd heard as a child. How she constantly pushed Kyoko away. How nothing Kyoko ever did was good enough for the strict woman. How Kyoko still yearned for her mother's love.

After a minute of silence to allow the young woman to gather her thoughts, Ren knelt down in front of her, tilting his head up to look at her face. Even while kneeling, he was less than two heads shorter than her. She looked sad but pensive, no longer stricken with shock.

"Mogami-san…"

Taking her cue, Kyoko blinked herself out of her thoughts and slowly straightened away from the wall. She hesitantly looked down at Ren, searching for words.

"That was my mother."

Ren pretended to be surprised.

"My mother abandoned me when I was six years-old."

Ren no longer had to pretend. He felt the word, 'What?' forming at his lips. When had Kyoko's mother abandoned her? The woman was still around when Kyoko had met the fairy Corn. And she had been six at that time, hadn't she?

Thankfully Kyoko, too absorbed in organizing her own thoughts, didn't notice his shift from controlled surprise to extreme confusion.

"I guess my mother was friends with Shotaro's mother," she continued hollowly. "I grew up in the Fuwa household under the care of the family's chef and housekeeper. They are a very loving couple, and I know they took care of me like I was their own daughter, but…"

Eyes searching her face, Ren finished her sentence, "But it's not the same…"

Avoiding eye contact, Kyoko shook her head in agreement. Her arms clasped together as she hugged herself.

"This is the first time you've seen her since then," Ren said, hazarding a guess.

"I got ignored again…" Kyoko stated in a too-wistful voice as she tried to look up. Her short laugh was thin with broken irony, and her plastered-on smile twisted into a grimace. "This isn't the first time she's ignored me. But I had hoped after so many years… maybe she… might…"

Kyoko's voice faded. Pinpricks of tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as her hands dropped to clutch the front of her dress, her knuckles a deathly white.

 _"Corn! Today, Okaa-san…"_ The broken weeping of a small girl by a stream echoed through Ren's memories. His resolve melted.

Without thinking, he rose and swiftly pulled Kyoko in a hug.

The shock must have propelled Kyoko over her emotional edge, and the tears came.

The normally reserved young woman muffled her loud, choking sobs in the front of Ren's suit jacket. To his surprise, she didn't try to push him away, but instead clung to him desperately, her hands fisted tightly in his lapels. He felt her body shaking violently with the force of her cries.

It was in that moment, as he felt his hands curl protectively around her small shoulders, that Ren knew. He loved this woman, and even with all the logic in the world, he could not will himself to stop loving her.

But Ren also knew that at the end of the day, he could only choose one: his revenge or Kyoko. Having both was not an option.

And he knew that if she ever got close enough to see the darkness in his past, in his heart— he would never have her at all.

-x-

* * *

 **MAILBAG** :

 **cleocat333** – Hope this clears up a little bit more of how Sho beat Ren! It was just chance, because Sho ran to look for her in the one direction that just happened to be correct. Part of me didn't like the Karuizawa arc _because_ Sho rescued Kyoko instead of Ren, but I think it caused some very interesting fallout in the main story. Mostly I came to appreciate that arc because it gives this sense that fate is pulling Kyoko and Sho's paths to intersect, but Ren is determined to fight even fate to win Kyoko's heart. :3

 **MWEH** – Noooo! I'd be very interested in hearing what you have to say! Haha It's such a compliment to hear that my fic is one of your faves. I'm not even halfway done yet, and the _really_ exciting stuff is to come. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

 **Shizuhoe** – LOL! Well, hope you liked my take on your favorite scene! It's so interesting that _that_ is your favorite! Maybe it's because Sho finally gets a glimpse of the terrifying man that he's really dealing with and not the gentleman façade that Ren puts up.

 **JeremyVD** – Yeah, it boggles my mind how people think that Kyoko should end up back with Sho. In my mind, that's a total insult to the strength of character Kyoko has built up all this time. It has the same feel as someone going back to an abusive relationship… *sigh* I guess everyone is entitled to their own shipping opinions, I suppose! But still… Thanks for the compliment and encouragement! Just wondering, how come you don't have a fanfic account? I seem to always see you reviewing as a guest. Just wondering!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Thanks for the encouragement! From one author to another, doesn't it just spur you on to keep on writing when your audience responds well? :D

 **SilverInu93** – Tada! Reino is here! Although I do have to admit that he isn't going to take center stage for a little bit and will only be around the periphery of the plot for a while. We shall see how the story unfolds! ;)

Until next time, loyal readers!


	10. Chapter 10

Hello loyal readers!

Today's chapter is more of an interlude between arcs, but I hope you enjoy some BFF time with Kanae. Kanae is really fun to write because she's kind of crabby like I am haha.

Thanks as always to those who take a moment to review! I always look forward to seeing what you guys have to say!

Enjoy!

* * *

CH10

She was going to get impeached for sure. She would have to resign as chairman, clean out her desk, and relinquish all of her duties to her successor... Wait, did she have a successor? She had to find _someone_ to carry on her most important life's work, now that she herself was disqualified!

"Moko-san!" Kyoko suddenly burst out, her hands clutching the edge of the computer screen. "Moko-san, you have to carry on the Japanese Maiden's Protection Party on your own! I am no longer fit to be–!"

"MOU! Kyoko! Weren't you paying attention to me at all?"

Kyoko blinked once. Twice. Oh, right. Moko-san had been talking to her about the Prime Minister's birthday gala. And then the younger woman's thoughts had strayed to what happened on the bench in the courtyard two nights ago and how after seeing her mother, she had clung to Tsuruga-san as if he were a piece of driftwood and, goodness, she could never ever face him again–!

"Mogami Kyoko," Kanae's voice growled out threateningly. "I swear, if you are off in your own little fantasy fairy world again while I am trying to talk to you for the first time in a month…!"

The Number One LoveMe girl's eyes watered at the impending threat.

"No, Moko-san! My best friend!" Kyoko stared beseechingly into the web cam at the top of her computer screen. Tears threatened to spill from her comically wide eyes. "Please don't leave me! You wouldn't be so heartless as to desert a lost soul in the wilderness of confusion!"

Kanae jerked her head to the side and mumbled something that sounded to Kyoko like, "Manipulative girl! Crocodile tears!" and then sighed mightily. When Kyoko's best friend turned back to face the screen, she was scowling, but more thoughtful than annoyed.

"Hmph," Kanae snorted finally. "If you ask me, Tsuruga-san is the one being confusing… It's pretty suspicious actually." She finished in an incoherent mumble.

The other girl didn't hear her finish.

"Moko-san," Kyoko interrupted. "You know as well as I do – as well as the whole world does, or they would, if they knew who he was – that Tsuruga-san is a much more experienced and overall better agent than I. Even the movement of his left pinky finger has significance towards his cover story!"

Kanae looked bored as her friend began to proudly ramble about her senpai's skills.

"Yeah. _And_?"

" _And_ , there's no way that he would do something like—" Kyoko abruptly froze, eyes widening as the seconds ticked by. Kanae was raising a hand to snap her fingers when Kyoko suddenly began again. "Something like _thosethingsthatItoldyouabout_ , without a deeply thought-out purpose and mission-minded intent!"

"Well, maybe that wasn't his character," the LoveMe Number Two girl retorted defiantly. "Maybe that was Tsuruga Ren."

Feeling the blood drain from her face before rushing back up in a swift blush, Kyoko couldn't get her hands up fast enough. She waved both in front of the screen as if swatting the mere idea away. "No, no, no, no, no! There's no way. Are you _crazy_ , Moko-san?"

She heard her friend sigh, but Kyoko tried to talk over her, launching into another lengthy explanation of how he was like a revered deity to her, how he only stooped to her level out of pity to lead her on missions, how he surely only looked at women who were beautiful and flawless–.

As her friend rolled her eyes yet again, Kyoko mentally interjected that the most damning piece of evidence had come directly from Tsuruga-san's mouth to Bo. He was already in love. And the girl – most certainly – wasn't her.

Kanae merely sighed and rubbed her temples. "Well, let's save that mystery for another time. What's the President going to do with the Delta agent who almost got you?"

"He's a weird one, that's for sure." At the mention of the purple-eyed creep, Kyoko wrinkled her nose in distaste. But she was thankful to leave the previous topic of discussion behind. "He said that he's already ingested several poisons. And he has this whole system of antidote pills, and if he doesn't take the right one at a particular time of the day, he said that he'll die. Or if he takes any of them before he's supposed to – he'll die. Sawara-san is trying to analyze the chemicals as fast as he can, but—" Kyoko shrugged. "That guy said that if the President tries to transfer him to the PSIA for interrogation, he'll refuse to eat any of his pills and then he'll die for sure!"

"I'm guessing that Sawara-san actually found chemicals in his blood work or tox screen, but probably doesn't know what they are…" Kanae mused, a thoughtful hand stroking her chin. "But then again, Sawara-san is only a doctor; he doesn't actually specialize in chemistry and pharmaceuticals…"

"That's not the worst news," Kyoko muttered darkly and slouched down in her desk chair. "It sounds like the President is going to keep him after all. Because the creep said he would only talk to _me_."

"YOU?" Her eyes blazing with anger, Kanae gripped the edge of her screen and wagged a finger at the camera. "You aren't thinking of actually going in there to talk to that psycho, are you? He almost killed you! And then kidnapped you!"

"I think he was just trying to kidnap me—"

"That's beside the point!" Kanae snapped. Agitated, her normally pretty face pinched into a frown. "What is that crazy, love-obsessed President thinking!"

Kyoko's forehead hit the wooden desk with a loud _thump_. Her words came out muffled as she said, "I don't know, Moko-san! I don't want to go in there either! He really…really scared me…"

Kyoko raised her head, so her chin was tucked onto the desk and her arms wrapped around her bent knees as she perched on her chair, a dense human ball of self-protection. She noted that her best friend's expression had softened.

"But… I'll probably be ok," Kyoko said with a small smile. "Because Tsuruga-san promised that he'd be in the room with me, and he wouldn't leave no matter what."

Unbidden at the mention of Ren, the horrifying memories came pouring back, and Kyoko felt her smile slowly but steadily transform into a horrified grimace.

"Oi, Kyoko. Focus." Kyoko heard Kanae snap her fingers.

To her credit, Kyoko came back to reality quite quickly. A look of epiphany crossed her face.

"Ne, Moko-san," she began slowly, a small frown forming on her brow. "Do you know someone named Mogami Saena?"

"Yes," Kanae said and rattled off quickly, "She's one of the Diet members in the House of Councilors. One of the fastest rising female politicians in Japanese history. Used to be a private attorney until 5 years ago when she joined the New Change Party and quickly rose through the ranks. She doesn't represent a particular local district, but was one of the Councilors appointed through the proportional representation vote for the House of Councilors. What about her?"

Pensive, Kyoko stared off into space, thinking about how to answer. Then Kanae gasped.

"She _is_ your mother, isn't she?"

"W-what?" Wide eyed in surprise, Kyoko spluttered.

"The thought had crossed my mind before, but I didn't want to bring it up, just in case I was wrong. You said your mother abandoned you when you were young."

"Is it because the last name is the same?"

Kanae shook her head. "I've seen video footage of your Natsu. They're the same."

Kyoko's eyes widened further, and she put her hands up defensively, shaking her head in denial. "No, but—"

"She's a very cold, calculating woman," Kanae continued solemnly. "Ruthless on the floor when they're discussing bills to pass. But very intelligent, I'll give her that."

Kyoko was silent for several moments, processing. Had her mother really abandoned her for a bid at political power? She supposed that if the public knew Saena was a single, unmarried mother, the opposition could use it in their favor to degrade her character in front of voters. Other politicians had their careers ruined for much less.

A dark, twisting feeling clenched at Kyoko's stomach.

"Hey, are you ok?" She heard Kanae call softly.

Kyoko looked up with a quick smile before dropping her eyes again. "I thought that where my mother was concerned, my heart had become as elastic as jelly, where every barb she threw my way would just bounce off…"

"Until two nights ago," the older girl finished for her, not unkindly. "And now you're wondering what happened."

Kyoko could only nod her head, not trusting her voice.

"I could do some digging for you," Agent K mused, her head tilted to the side in thought. "Maybe ask around, casually gather info on the side…"

"Would you!" Instantly Kyoko sprang forward, hands clasped to her bosom and eyes shining. Roses seemed to blossom out of thin air behind her head. "You're my best friend after all!"

"Geh!" Kanae lurched back, as if the excited girl could launch herself across cyberspace and through her screen to tackle her. "It's not like I'm doing it because we're friends or anything. I just happen to have a lot of free time on my hands–"

"Oh! Moko-san! Don't you start patrolling soon?"

Kanae swiveled around to glance at the clock behind her. "Oh, you're right. I have 5 minutes."

All smiles again, Kyoko enthused, "I forgot to ask you! How are your duties as Prime Minister Ogata's guard going?"

Kanae shrugged as she reached off-screen for a hair tie and began to gather her long black hair into a high, slicked-back ponytail. "Same as when we talked last month. I follow him around, take notes, be the best personal assistant I can be, gather info to send back to the President, and foil the occasional fan girl mobbing when I can."

The younger woman's amber eyes were as wide as saucers at this point. Kanae pointed an accusatory finger at her screen while she zipped up her black stealth suit.

"Don't think it's exciting or fun or anything! This is still one of the President's dumb LoveMe assignments."

Kyoko beamed at the screen happily. She was glad that at least Kanae was making headway toward overcoming her lack of love toward families. The Ogata family was a beautiful and peaceful one. Ogata Asami-sama was so elegant and kind, their toddler son was the nation's mischievous darling, and the PM himself was very gentle.

Suddenly recalling one of their previous conversations, Kyoko asked curiously, "So did you ever figure out how to get the _Kotei_ security guards to leave you alone? They still don't know who you really are, or that you're doing your own patrols. Have they tried to chase you after that first night?"

"Those guys?" Kanae scoffed and expertly ejected and checked the magazine of her modified pistol. She paused a moment as a cunning smile crossed her lips. "A couple of ghost rumors, and now they don't chase after anything that goes bump in the night."

-x-

Winding down the interview with the NHK's political pundits was proving difficult. All three of them were passionately discussing the upcoming Prime Minister election – as passionately as Japanese men could while on national television. However, eventually the petite female newscaster bowed to the screen, and the studio cut the video feed. With only a slightly haggard smile, the newscaster turned back to face the camera.

"In other news, Tokyo police are glad to report no new victims of the feared serial killer Black Jack. The recent spate of murders that began two months ago and terrorized the country has suddenly and unexpectedly ceased.

"Black Jack, who the Tokyo police believe is a Japanese national and not a foreigner, has been well-covered in recent news due to the disturbing nature of his modus operandi. Bodies of victims are often mangled beyond recognition. Tokyo's district coroners have only been able to identify victims through dental records or personal belongings.

"Very little is known about this mysterious and terrifying murderer. But it looks as though the police may never know. Has Black Jack decided to stop his killing spree? Have the police forced him into hiding? Only time will tell…"

-x-

Ren doesn't know how, but he's back at that one sleazy accountant's house. Yamashita Sadao, is it?

The man's office is messy. Papers and old convenience store bentos are stacked in haphazard piles on every flat surface. Not even bothering to rifle through them, Ren – no, he is Katsuki right now – quickly makes his way to the desktop computer sitting on the man's desk.

Katsuki checks once over his shoulder, then unclips one of his silver cuff-links. He unfolds the metal and plugs the small, disguised memory stick into the computer's USB port. He wishes Yashiro's virus package was a smaller upload file. Mizuki is keeping watch, and Katsuki doesn't like to keep her waiting.

The computer beeps, and Katsuki pulls the USB stick out and reattaches his cufflink.

Suddenly he finds himself back out in the hallway, antique furniture and large portraits of stern Japanese men line the walls. At the end is Mizuki, but she is talking to someone.

Katsuki already knows it's the security guard.

'Oh no. It's happening again.'

The burly man leans forward, leering, and Mizuki, unsure if Katsuki is done, continues the distraction by flirting back.

Then Ren watches as if detached from his body, as a doppelganger Katsuki walks up and calmly engages the security guard, all smiles.

Behind him, the President sits in his Roman toga. He sips wine from a bronze chalice and smugly says, "Of course your love acting is atrocious! You've never been in love."

The chicken-guy is standing next to the President, and he titters back, voice muffled behind his costume head, "I agree! This poor, lonesome guy!"

Back with Katsuki, the security guard grows suspicious, Ren watches him reach for the walkie-talkie on his belt.

"Why are you two here? This area is for private access only!"

Then the room grows dark, and a cold gloom swirls in the air. A young woman in a dark, neck-high dress and a shockingly prominent scar on her forehead, steps forward.

Her face is twisted, all smiles of malicious intent. She ignores the poor security guard and strides confidently toward the couple.

"Well, well… What do we have here?" Hongo Mio croons dangerously. "While poor Onee-sama is helping father with business, her fiancé and cousin are sneaking off for some alone time."

"Mio-san!" Mizuki yelps, petrified. Unable to help herself, she clutches Katsuki's elbow. Katsuki places a protective hand over hers, turning to shield her with his body.

The security guard sees this exchange and steps forward.

Before he is able to open his mouth, Mio snaps coldly at him, "Enough, little man. I tire of you. Leave us."

He pauses.

"Now." Mio's scar and angrily cold eyes make her look like a demon. Her presence grows to fill the room with her frigid, choking authority.

Instantly cowed, the formerly brazen man scurries away.

Ren walks away from the scene with Katsuki. He knows how it ends. Kyoko's first mission with LME, back when he still didn't like her. She saved him.

The hallway swirls away, melting into a dark void. A man stands, lit from above by stage lights, and he beckons to Ren.

Lory is holding a manila folder out to him, and a wicked smile crosses the older man's face. Ren's strong self-preservation instinct tells him to turn and run. Instead a force compels him forward to accept the folder. Just as Ren's hands are about to touch the stiff cardstock, a small hand alights on his arm and yanks sharply.

Ren looks down but is not surprised. He knows her. It's his sister.

The petite young woman steps closer to him, her thigh-high black stiletto boots _clacking_ on the city sidewalk as they walk together. His arm feels just right with hers wrapped possessively around it. His long, heavy black trench coat flaps behind them as they walk.

Ren doesn't gawk at her dangerously short leather skirt or the black cotton and lace camisole that clings to her every curve under a tough leather jacket. A tinkling meets his ears and he's not sure if it's her light laughter or the chain piercing that drapes enticingly from her ear to her lower lip.

Without hesitation, Ren sweeps aside her long mess of blonde hair with pink-dyed tips. He wants to see her face.

Her gaze is at once mischievous and affectionate. Amber eyes flash at him as her smirk widens, the piercing tracking with her smile. She parts her full, petal-soft lips to call his name–

Blinking, Ren lay on his large bed, sheets tangled like a rope around his legs. He sighed deeply and sat up, glancing at the clock. The electronic face glowed a warm green.

3:56 AM.

Groggy and disoriented, Ren groaned and rolled out of bed. He returned shortly with a glass of cold water that he drank in big, hasty gulps.

As strange as the dream had been, he was glad that he had merely been dreaming. It was maddening, merely imagining Kyoko in such revealing clothes and clinging to his arm as if she–.

By his bed, on the dark hardwood desk sat an unassuming manila folder.

Ren nearly spit his mouthful of water out. It wasn't a dream. Lory had given him the rough mission outline earlier that night. Choking and coughing, the dark-haired agent picked up the file folder. In his haste, papers spilled out onto his bed.

Some were mission briefs and paragraphs of long, bureaucratic text. But most were pictures – sketches really – and there she was, staring back at him. The girl from his dreams. Kyoko. But not his Kyoko.

Jelly Woods had the courtesy to provide a messy scrawl on the bottom of one of her sketches – one which depicted a tall, black-haired, villainous-looking man and a petite blonde in a scandalous leather outfit strolling arm in arm down a city street. A dangerous couple.

"Cain and Setsu Heel," Ren intoned begrudgingly as he read the names at the bottom of the rough portrait.

With a groan and a short curse aimed at President Takarada, Ren flopped back onto his bed, sending papers flying.

The Heel Siblings were no dream after all.

-x-

* * *

Was the dream sequence transition to real life off-putting? I hope so! If the tense and scenery change threw you for a loop, then I think I got the effect I wanted.

Thanks again for reading!

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **JeremyVD** – Oh! You do have an account! Haha, thanks for going through the trouble of signing in!

 **MWEH** – I know right?! I have to suppress a fan-girl squeal every time I read that chapter. Admittedly, Nakamura-sensei's sense of body proportions is a _liiiiittle_ off, but her ability to convey emotion and to weave an integrated story are absolutely masterful. Are you excited for the next chapter of the manga to come out? I can't wait to see how Kyoko's Momiji whips everyone's butt! Thanks for the compliments and the encouragement! You're one of my (if not THE) most faithful reviewers and I always look forward every week to reading your reviews!

 **Shizuhoe** – Hahaha! It's true! It's not cannon, but I've always kind of wanted Ren to smack Reino around a little. We may… or may not be getting a little more of that in the near future… Hehehe… As for Saena, yup! That was the twist! She has arrived! Not to give away too many spoilers, but she's very important for the big-bad subplot that will be in the final arc of the story. Hehehe…

 **Big Unni234** – Thanks! And you shall find out the connection between Takemura Ryuji and Reino in the next chapter! Thanks for reading!

 **cleocat333** – Thanks for the review again! Yup, Sho's actions definitely speak louder than words sometimes. And hehe, glad you liked my little fan-girl moe moment at the end! I do aim to please… :3


	11. Chapter 11

Hello loyal readers!

Today we have a chapter that began as a short start-up for the next story arc… And somehow, the characters and plot kind of got carried away with themselves. But it's all purposeful, I promise! There's a lot to take care of, including last chapter – tying up loose ends, showing how our main pairing are growing emotionally, introducing more of our beloved cast (Kanae, Maria, Shoko, Saena, Ogata), fleshing out their world, setting up the Big Bad, yada-yada-yada.

Sorry that this interlude "arc" is kind of "slow". There were significantly fewer reviews on the last chapter (I'm a huuuge stats person, because I believe that the numbers speak for how well the story is being received, etc ), and I think it has to do with the perception that nothing is really happening plot-wise. But trust me, dear readers, that I'm setting up some big things. I only hope I'm not losing your interest in the meanwhile!

On the bright side, this is the last time we'll have to see Sho for a long, long time. Rejoice! Haha

* * *

 **CH11**

"And then, we've been researching the clothing styles and mannerisms of the cosplay artists in Harajuku," Maria chirped as she skipped down the hall next to Kyoko. The small girl's maroon dress flounced in time with her steps. "Woods-san promised that she would take me out to try some new disguises next time."

Kyoko beamed down at the President's granddaughter. The two had just finished lunch at the café in the hub of LME's HQ. When Maria had learned where Kyoko was headed next, the young girl had insisted on walking her precious 'older sister' to the interrogation. With Maria holding one hand and her own special protective charm in the other, Kyoko felt safer already.

"I'm sure Muse-sama will take good care of you, but make sure you're careful, Maria-chan," Kyoko warned lightly. "I don't want any weird guys taking you away."

Maria's laugh sounded more like a scoff. She waved her free hand in the air dismissively. "Oh please, Onee-sama. I might be small, but Hiou-kun and his grandfather have been teaching me martial arts since I was old enough to walk!"

"Kyoko-chan! Maria-chan!" A familiar voice called from behind them. The two girls turned and waved as Yashiro walked briskly across the polished wooden floor to catch up to them.

"Where are you two ladies off to?" The techie asked as he fell into step with them.

He had clearly just come back from supervising a mission or some other work, Kyoko noted. The tech support's normally crisp white shirt was rumpled in the back and his sleeves were rolled up. Also, a pair of latex gloves peeked out from his pants pocket.

"We're going to the holding cells," announced Maria with a jaunty skip forward. Her enthusiasm mismatched with the image of the grim concrete basement level that held whatever riffraff the LME unit happened to hold onto after missions.

As they continued down the wood-paneled hall of the more comforting upper residence wing, Yukihito tipped his head to the side, inquiring. "Why would you need to go to the holding cells?"

"The President gave me a LoveMe assignment," Kyoko muttered, feeling her visage instantly turn dark and murderous. "He needs me to interrogate that dumb Beagle."

"Beagle?" Yashiro cocked his head to the other side, even more confused. "As in, 'Woof, woof'?"

"A doggy?" Maria looked similarly puzzled. "I thought we were going for that creepy guy…"

"I don't know why they named themselves 'Beagle'!" Kyoko wailed and strode on toward the elevator's brushed metal doors at the end of the hall. "The name doesn't exactly strike fear into people's hearts. But who knows what goes through the twisted, demonic mind of an assassination group like that!"

"Bea…gle…" Yashiro mused as he came to a stop next to Maria in front of the elevator. Then, realization crossed his face, followed swiftly by horror. " _Vie Ghoul_?! As in, the Vie Ghoul Assassins?"

Kyoko had just pressed the down button, missing Yashiro's terror. She turned back, arms crossed over her chest, muttering tersely to herself, "Beagle, Vie Ghoul, Bee Guru – when in Japan, they should call themselves something a normal Japanese citizen can pronounce. Stupid Beagles…"

"I didn't know that the creepy man was a Vie Ghoul assassin!" Maria exclaimed. Kyoko then noticed her companions' worry and was surprised to see that the small girl seemed visibly upset. "Onee-sama is in real danger! What is Grandfather thinking!"

Yashiro crossed his arms and nodded furiously. He waved a lecturing finger in the air.

"The Vie Ghoul are notorious in certain circles for their assassinations. Very well thought-out, meticulous plans. Almost untraceable after the deed is done. No one from their group has ever been caught. Some say that they're almost supernatural!"

Maria was growing paler and more tremulous by the second. Kyoko herself was starting to feel somewhat queasy.

"I-I'll be ok, Maria-chan," Agent M tried to sound convincing. Her hand drifted to the secret weapon in her pants pocket. "After all, Tsuruga-san will be there with me. I'm sure that between him and the handcuffs, I'll be well protected."

The elevator arrived with a somber _ding_ , and the three piled into the metal box. Meanwhile, at the mention of Ren, Maria had performed a complete emotional 180.

"Oh! Ren-chan will be there too?" Maria crooned, dreamily. "Ok, then. I'm sure you will be safe, Onee-sama."

"I agree! He'll make sure you're safe, Kyoko-chan," said Yashiro, grinning. Amber eyes narrowed at the sneaky look on the older man's face.

Ever since the mission at the Prime Minister's birthday gala, Yashiro had been acting strangely toward Kyoko. Agent M couldn't shake the gut-instinct that it had something to do with Ren's bizarre behavior during the night. Thinking of Ren, leaning over her on the stone bench… Or his strong arms encircling her as she wept…

"Ne, Yashiro-san…" Kyoko froze. The beginnings of her burning question had already escaped her lips before she had realized.

The tech guru perked up out of his creepy demeanor and asked what was on her mind. She paused, given a fortuitous opportunity to stall as the elevator announced its arrival at one of the basement levels with a loud chime. Kyoko's mind raced to think of a better question, but she ended up blurting out the one that was already percolating at the top of her mind.

"Have any of Tsuruga-san's previous partners had any…" She paused, searching for the right word as the three exited the elevator. "…problems with him?"

"Hm… Not really." Yashiro stopped to think just outside the elevator. Agent M had to fight not to fidget and shuffle her feet on the unforgiving cement floor. Finally, after what seemed to Kyoko like a lifetime, Yukihito spoke again.

"Well, I suppose there is the occasional female operative who has difficulty separating Ren's romantic acting from his actual feelings—"

"Yeah! Those creepy women need to get a grip," Maria chimed in, small arms crossed over her chest. "Especially, that one lady who…"

Kyoko was no longer listening to her two companions as the duo continued down the hall without her. Her open hand unconsciously found its way to her chest, over her heart. A breath she hadn't realized she had been holding, finally escaped.

The young woman smiled. She was safe.

While on the bench with Tsuruga-san – with Ryota – her heart had run away with her. She had almost allowed him – his character – to…

'So it's normal...' Kyoko mused to herself with a small shake of her head. 'What a scary, masterful actor. I had decided never to let my pulse race over a man ever again…'

"Onee-sama!" Kyoko heard Maria call. "Why are you just standing there?"

No longer bogged down by murky, troublesome feelings, Kyoko skipped to catch up to her two friends, weightless on her toes.

"Thank you, Yashiro-san! Maria-chan! I'll make sure that I'm never so presumptuous with the actions and kindness of others ever again!"

Maria and Yukihito could only blink, profoundly confused as the field operative practically pirouetted and skipped far ahead of them down the drab concrete hall.

-x-

"Stop pushing, Shoko-san. I know how to walk!"

Many would have called the woman who glared down at Fuwa Shotaro 'beautiful' – but at the moment, Aki Shoko was sure the frown that pinched together her perfectly-shaped brows was going to become a permanent fixture of her face.

The fact that the LME unit had seemingly tucked Sho away in the deepest, farthest corner they could find – combined with the mistake of wearing her most blister-inducing pair of black pumps – was not helping. Unaware of her plight, the nondescript guard, who had released Sho from his cell and was escorting them to the exit, was setting a brisk but watchful pace in front them.

"Sho." The personal assistant tried to muster a patient smile without removing her firm hand from the small of her charge's back. "I just spent 15 hours with your father's lawyer trying to convince some government gopher not to ship you off to Nepal and erase all traces of you from Japanese records. It would behoove you to _move faster_ before someone changes their mind."

Despite the change of clothing his father's personal assistant had provided, the blonde hotel heir still looked a little worse for wear. He had, after all, gotten into a significant tussle with a professional assassin, been mildly poisoned for his efforts, knocked unconscious by two government agents, and smuggled into a dank, cramped cell where no one would answer his questions. Also, courtesy of the poison, he had spent the better half of the night and early morning nauseously revisiting the seven pudding hors d'oeuvres and the glass of champagne he had snuck behind his father's back at the gala.

Then he had spent the whole next day shouting himself hoarse at the bars of his cell before being rescued by a very exasperated Shoko-san.

Unrepentant, Sho kicked the ground and muttered, "I know, I know. But it's not my fault I'm in this dump."

"Yes, well, according to the Japanese government, you've never seen 'this dump' or heard of it or had to sign any papers saying that you'll be charged with high treason for even mentioning 'this dump' to anyone," Shoko snapped as the two briskly walked down the concrete hall.

"Right turn here, please." The security guard motioned the two ahead of him. "The elevator is at the end of this hall."

Shoko smiled apologetically at the blue-uniformed guard as she hurried Sho around the corner.

"Oof!"

"Ow!"

Alarmed, Shoko stepped back from the pedestrian collision she had just caused. She was just about to apologize to the young woman, whom Sho had knocked down, when the girl spoke.

"My deepest apologies—!" The auburn-haired girl abruptly cut off. In an instant, her contrite attitude vanished like a puff of smoke. "What! You again!"

"Hah! Weren't you about to apologize for bumping into me?" Sho was no less pleased. He sneered as Shoko reached down to help the strange girl up.

"The day I apologize to a manipulative jerk like you is the day that hell freezes over." Amber eyes flashed with indignant anger at Sho, then turned to Shoko. Suddenly, the girl brightened with pleased recognition. "Oh! Shoko-san?"

"K-Kyoko-chan!" Shoko allowed her surprise to wash away as Kyoko dusted off her denim jeans. In her stylish new haircut and dye, Kyoko was nearly a stranger. Despite having known her for years in the Fuwa household, Shoko would never have looked twice at this girl on the street if they had passed each other.

But aside from the hair, there was something different about her. Something that made her seem more… _alive._ Was this the power of the LME unit?

"Shoko-san, it is very nice to see you again," Kyoko said with a crisp bow, hands tucked politely in front of her. For a moment, Shoko caught a glimpse of the formal young woman she used to know. "How are the Okami and Taisho?"

"Doing quite well, actually." The personal assistant replied, unable to help herself from falling back into comfortable conversation with Kyoko, despite sensing Sho's ire growing behind her. "They are actually currently gone on vacation. Fuwa-sama is quite beside herself trying to organize the servants in their absence."

"Onee-sama!"

"Kyoko-chan!"

Shoko turned, surprised to see a small girl in a frilly maroon dress and a man in glasses and a rumpled white dress shirt hurrying down the hall toward them. Kyoko smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, Yashiro-san, Maria-chan. I bumped into an old acquaintance, and–"

"FUWA SHO?" The brown-haired man yelped, reeling back a step. Shoko watched in surprise as the girl who must have been 'Maria-chan' swiveled her head around so sharply that her curled ringlets flew in an arc.

On guard, Sho crossed his arms over his chest and glared. Clearly, though the two recognized him on sight or by name, the knowledge was not mutual.

"This punk?" Maria demanded, incredulous. She marched over to the blonde heir, circling him once and looking him up and down. Sho just glowered at her, unsure what to make of the young girl's attention.

Finally, Maria stuck her nose up in the air and sniffed.

"6 out of 10. Not nearly as good as Ren-sama," the small girl said with a toss of her hair as she whirled around and sauntered coolly back to Kyoko's side. "Onee-sama must've been temporarily insane or something."

Shoko heard someone snicker and looked up just in time to see the glasses-man hide his laughter. Sho looked shocked and appalled. He had never been told by any girl of any age that he was lacking in any way.

Before her charge could recover and launch a verbal attack at the little girl, which would assuredly be in poor taste, Shoko quickly introduced herself to Kyoko's friends.

"What brings you to LME headquarters, Aki-san?" Yashiro nodded to the guard who had been standing off to the side, excusing him. The guard made a small bow and went to call the elevator.

"I'm just here to take this one back home," Shoko explained, motioning vaguely in her charge's direction.

"Oh," Kyoko mused, placing a thoughtful hand to her cheek. "I suppose Fuwa-sama would have sent you to collect him. Since you're Fuwa-sama's personal assistant and all…"

Coming off of his shock, Shotaro was less than pleased that he was being ignored. He huffed, "I'm not a lost piece of luggage, you know!"

"Actually, I have been reassigned," Shoko clarified, talking over him and trying not to sound as haggard as she felt. "I am now Sho's personal assistant. Fuwa-sama wants his son to start taking his role in the Fuwa hotel empire more seriously. Kind of like a high school internship. I'm here to facilitate that transition. How about you? I was told by Fuwa-sama that you'd found work elsewhere. I had no idea it was something like this!"

"It's better not to ask, Shoko-san." Sho scoffed. He had had enough of being ignored. "The poor girl is stuck playing make-believe with some pinhead, so-called secret agent."

Instantly, Kyoko bristled. Shoko almost quavered in her heels as the young woman's rage became palpable in the air.

"What did you say about T-san?"

"Hey! Is this punk talking about Ren-sama?" Maria shouted, equally indignant. Her pretty, cherub-like face puckered and reddened in anger. Yashiro had to hold the small girl back – from doing what, Shoko had no idea, but with a group like the LME unit, one could never be too careful.

Laughing nervously, Shoko tugged at the crook of Sho's arm. The elevator was just a short walk away. "That's enough Sho. We're late to meet your father..."

Per usual, her charge ignored her.

"That guy – Ren? Tsuruga Ren, was it?" Sho sneered down at Kyoko, hands on his hips. "Eats little ugly, boring girls like you like bite-sized appetizers. He doesn't take you seriously – as his partner or as a woman!"

"You stupid blondie!" Maria howled, trying to muscle her way out of Yashiro's grip on her arms. "You take that back—!"

Shoko saw Kyoko's eyes darken in anger as she raised a hand. For a moment, Shoko panicked. 'Not his face, Kyoko-chan!'

But the LME operative merely held a hand up to Maria. Then she turned to address Sho, her gaze weighty and fierce.

"That my respected senpai does not consider me an equal in the field," Kyoko growled. "I don't need to be hearing from the likes of you. Let alone the fact that he has no romantic interest in me at all—!"

"Hah!" Sho crossed his arms and leaned toward her, trying to intimidate the auburn-haired woman with his height. "Like I'm supposed to believe you're not going to fall for his stupid harem-recruiting tricks."

"Are you calling me an idiot?" Kyoko snapped back, her voice rising. "Or perhaps you're calling me insane? What kind of sane person repeats the same mistakes and expects a better result?"

"You know, Kyoko." Sho grinned. "There's a saying in English – 'Fool you once, shame on me; fool you twice, shame on you–.'"

"So if I get fooled again, the blame will be on me?" The young woman's eyes sparked with righteous fury. "If that's the case, and if god-forbid, some day I become such a fool, I'll… I'll go back and work as a maid in your father's house again!"

"Well…" With a smug grin that would have put the Cheshire Cat to shame, Sho took a calculated step forward, invading Kyoko's personal space. "Make sure you never make that mistake, then. If you still want to try and get your revenge on me…"

With that, Sho swiveled around and strode toward the elevator. Shoko hurriedly bowed apologetically to the three government agents and trotted after Sho.

As the elevator doors were closing behind them, Shoko heard little Maria call out, "You better watch out, you dumb blondie! I'm going to curse you with 666 years of bad luck!"

-x-

* * *

Oh man! Maria's _pissed!_ On a quick side note, I haven't officially written it into the story, but in this universe, Kyoko has told Maria about her past with Sho and on top of that, Maria (cunning and sharp child that she is) has figured out that there's some kind of attraction between Ren and Kyoko. After struggling with this realization for some time, Maria has at the mature age of 9, come to terms with this. In fact, she is secretly trying to support them. After all, they are her two most favorite people in al the world. She would want them to be happy!

Also, bad slip from both Kyoko (CH 9) and Maria, but Sho now knows Ren's "real" name. Clumsy error from two professional agents, but necessary and in my mind, unavoidable (after all, who doesn't know the name of their rival?!).

Next time, Kanae makes good on her promise, and we get to see a little bit of Ren's inner turmoil.

Until then, thank you for your reviews, faves, and follows!

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **DizziZilla** – Thanks so much! It's always such a treat to get a compliment from a fellow author!

 **cleocat333** – Thanks so much for the amazing review! Kanae is the best, and I totally agree, she is a great contrasting character to bounce Kyoko off of! And don't worry about BJ. ;) He's safe and sound… hehe Sad to say, but BJ is not going to play a _huuuuge_ role, necessarily. But his persona is going to be necessary to get Ren and Kyoko into contact with the bad guys.

 **MWEH** – I just read the next manga chapter! Aghhh! Finally some progress! Sometimes I forget that Nakamura-sensei is capable of drawing action-fight scenes. Have you read her first work, Tokyo Crazy Paradise? I much prefer Skip Beat, but at least that one is completed already. Thanks as always for your review! :)

 **Shizuhoe** – I also missed Kanae too! It took her 10 chapters to show up, but I'm glad she's finally here! As for BJ, sadly he's not going to play a _huge_ role in the upcoming story, but Saena will. As for Saena… We shall see! I can say that she's going to be pivotal in the final two arcs.


	12. Chapter 12

Hello loyal readers!

Thanks for the reassurances by those who reviewed. On one hand numbers are just numbers, but I think numbers also are a way to guarantee that other people will read the story too. Hence, the insecurities. Haha

Anyhoo, this week we see a little bit of Kanae at her long-term assignment, a bit of broody fan-service Ren (not too much, don't get too excited ;D), and another peak at Delta, the Big Bad. I wonder if anyone will guess his true identity before the big reveal? ;)

Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

 **CH12**

"Prime Minister Ogata," Kanae called, head buried in her handheld tablet as she walked briskly into his office. Her skirt suit and high-heeled pumps were, as usual, impeccable and business-like. "I've left the latest update from the budgetary committee on your desk for you to review. Then at 17:00, you have a meet and greet with the winners of this year's Summer Koshien high school baseball tournament. And then at 18:00 is dinner with Asami-san…"

The soft sound of weeping interrupted her. Kanae sighed and looked up from her tablet. PM Ogata Hiroaki sat in his regal, high-backed, burgundy leather chair in front of his official, polished cherry-wood desk and snuffled ungracefully, his face buried in his hands.

"What is it this time?" The dark-haired woman asked, tapping her tablet impatiently against her nylon-clad leg. "Did someone say something about your father?"

PM Ogata didn't reply. He just shook his head miserably.

"Is it the re-election again?"

A head nod.

Kanae sighed again. Goodness, she was going to get so many wrinkles working for this man. She crossed the room and sat down in one of the worn wooden and leather chairs across from his desk.

"Prime Minister," she began haltingly. Giving encouragement and praise was never one of her strong points. But she had been getting better at it after working for such a thin-skinned, delicate man. Maybe it was all part of the President's ploy. "I've told you this before, but regardless of what the public thinks, you're still a great man. You've done many positive things for Japan over the past few years. And it's been a privilege to work with you and Asami-san…" Kanae mumbled the last part, her gaze sliding off to the side.

Ogata sniffled again, looking down into his lap. He finally replied, "Kotonami-san, thank you for your kind words, but it's not the public's opinion I am afraid of losing."

When he looked up again, the fierce determination in his gaze nearly took Kanae's breath away. Sometimes she forgot that there was no coincidence why this man was the youngest democratic leader Japan had ever known.

"We have a more balanced budget than in the past three decades; the economy is booming and has broader international trade; more people are getting affordable urban housing; and we have greater education opportunities for children in rural areas," Ogata swiftly ticked off on his slim fingers. Kanae watched with swelling pride as her boss's eyes shone with eager conviction and hope for the future.

Then his gaze fell. "But it might have all been for nothing… Unfortunately, there are those who have different ideas about the future of Japan… And they're not without powerful friends."

"Prime Minister…" Kanae paused, her brow furrowed again. "Who exactly is running against you in December?"

A knock sounded at the door behind Kanae. She almost jumped in surprise, but smoothed her motions over by tucking some loose hairs into her braid at the nape of her neck. The door opened to Minato-san, Ogata's secretary.

The middle-aged woman bowed before announcing, "I am sorry to intrude, Prime Minister Ogata-sama and Kotonami-san. But I am afraid the Prime Minister has some… unscheduled visitors."

The secretary's voice faded away as a man and woman strode confidently into the office. The man was dressed in an immaculate gray suit and wire-rimmed glasses, which glinted in the indoor light. His dark hair was slicked back to reveal a small widow's peak.

To his left, the woman wore her black pinstriped skirt-suit with a crisp white blouse, her bun not allowing a single hair to escape out of place. A deep frown marred her brow. Both bowed at the waist upon entering.

Kanae heard Ogata muffle a yelp behind her.

Hoping to stall for him, the agent swiftly stood and bowed deeply, the tablet folded under her hands in front of her. "Councilor Toudou, Councilor Mogami. What a pleasant surprise."

And in some ways, it _was_ a pleasant surprise for Kanae. She hadn't expected that her prey would waltz right into her lap.

"Indeed, welcome." The Prime Minister said in a tight voice as he also rose to greet the intruders. Kanae prayed he wouldn't faint. "Please, be seated."

The fake personal assistant bowed again out of deference and moved away from the seats in front of Ogata's desk. Keeping one ear open, she calmly walked to the corner of the room that held the electric hot water pot and green tea.

"Prime Minister Ogata," Mogami Saena intoned. "I will be blunt. I refuse to vote in favor of your upcoming bill this Monday."

Kanae picked up two ceramic teacups, careful not to let them clank together as she eavesdropped. She heard Toudou laugh, a polite but amused sound.

"My apologies, Prime Minister. Mogami-san can be a bit blunt. We wanted to discuss some concerns about the burden that this legislation would have on certain… _concerned_ parties."

As Kanae mixed the matcha powder into the hot water, she felt relieved to hear the Prime Minister's voice begin to swell in confidence.

"Do you mean the social, emotional, and financial burden placed on pregnant women in the workforce? Or could you perhaps mean the dip in fiscal gains by the major corporations who fund your campaigns back in your district? One month of paid maternity leave is a small price to pay in order to stymie the alarming trends of decreasing Japanese birth rate and increasing rate of suicide among young working women."

The LoveMe member had to remember to hide her smug grin as she turned around, tray with tea in hand.

"You all know as well as I that the Japanese culture is so work-driven that it makes it nearly impossible for working women to have job security if they choose to have children," Ogata finished, impassioned.

Councilor Toudou merely nodded and held up his hands, a gesture of surrender. He thanked Kanae as she handed him a cup of steaming tea.

"Women who desire to have children should have no place in the Japanese workforce to begin with."

Kanae nearly spilled Councilor Mogami's tea on her lap. A quick glance up at her face revealed a cold, stone-faced frown. But instead of feeling intimidated, Kanae bristled in outrage. If this woman really was Kyoko's mother, what right did she have to be saying such insensitive things?

"Surely, Councilor Mogami," Kanae interjected coolly, hiding her anger. She also ignored the hard stare Saena directed at the interrupting assistant. "You yourself know the struggles of a Japanese woman in the workforce."

'Yes, leave just enough implication for her to respond about her daughter without outright accusation,' Kanae thought. It was time to get some answers for her best friend.

Unflappable, Saena looked Kanae directly in the eye, her frown now a jagged line down the middle of her brow.

"I have never had children," Saena declared bluntly, "nor have I ever had the slightest inkling of a desire to retain something as burdensome as a family."

Shocked, Kanae could only watch as Councilor Mogami rose from her seat, ignoring the tea that had been poured for her, and turned to face the Prime Minister.

"If these weak, pandering policies are all that your administration produces, Prime Minister Ogata, I should warn you that many in the Diet would prefer a change in leadership."

With a slight sigh, Toudou handed his unfinished tea back to Kanae, and he flashed her a grim, apologetic smile as he rose as well.

With a small bow from both Diet members, they excused themselves from the Prime Minister's chambers. The door shut firmly behind them on the way out.

 **-x-**

Ren relished the cool solidity of the tatami mats under his feet as he moved fluidly through the stances of the Uesugi-style kata. The LME dojo was empty, and Ren felt fortunate because while he could put up his gentleman's front, he felt exceedingly exhausted.

He had come to clear his mind, not the entertain others.

However, even though his was the lone 'kiai' that echoed through the room, bouncing hollowly off the wooden walls, Ren found his mind more muddled than ever.

Finishing off his current kata, Ren brought his hands up and down, breathing in then out deeply. Relaxing the tension in his body, he walked over to his water bottle for a quick guzzle. He had been at it for at least an hour, and the contours of his body were slicked in a sticky sheen of perspiration, causing his t-shirt to stick to his skin.

He brought a towel up to his face, wiping away the sweat.

Kyoko.

Groaning, Agent T crouched to the ground, hanging his head between his knees.

"Just stay out of my head," Ren whispered fiercely to the face that popped into his mind. There was only one other time in his life that he had felt more trapped. But his feelings toward Kyoko were running a close second.

Lost in thought, Ren could scarcely feel the beads of sweat that traveled in small rivulets down his cheekbones to collect at the tip of his chin.

Kyoko. He couldn't get close… but he couldn't stay away…

An image of Fuwa's smirking face flashed through Ren's mind. Instantly, Ren shook his head violently, flinging perspiration across the room and dispelling the memory. Rising to his feet, Ren quickly strode across the floor to the center of the dojo.

Thinking about Fuwa, Ren let out a violent, 'KIYAH!' and shot forward into a close-handed strike. Continuing through the forms – stance shift, pivot, block, strong strike, stance shift – Ren knew that Fuwa was another reason why Ren could not stay away from Kyoko. There was something in the hotel heir's gaze and accusations that spoke of affection toward Kyoko – twisted and immature or not. And even though Kyoko was now far away from Fuwa, somehow fate kept drawing the two back together.

More viciously than necessary, Ren cut through the air with an aggressive frontal kick. He felt a small protesting twinge in his calf muscle and drew a calming breath. Refocusing himself, the senior agent continued with the last form in the kata, actually paying attention to his stance this time.

Another deep breath, and Ren began to repeat the same kata.

He'd be damned if he let Fuwa hurt Kyoko ever again. But what else could Ren do?

The President's creation of Setsuka Heel had ended Ren's attempts at avoidance. Yokohama was no longer a solo mission. It was now a torture session for two, just waiting to happen.

He could try to verbally force her away, but… Kyoko's tear-streaked face at the gala crossed his mind. No… His rejection might be the final nail in the coffin of her self-confidence.

He could pursue her. He could try to start over.

Ren realized that he had stopped practicing. He stood in the middle of the empty dojo and stared down at his hands.

For a moment, Ren could have sworn they were covered in blood. Then he blinked, panicked, and the harsh fluorescent light shone along his sweaty but clean palms. A familiar feminine voice echoed in his mind. _Murderer... Murderer…_

Fighting off the cold, gut-wrenching shiver that clawed its way up his spine, Ren set himself in the beginning stance of the kata and began again.

Years ago in America, Lory had asked him if he wanted to start over… Every time Ren was with Kyoko, it felt as though her light and life could banish his darkness. Automatically, like a moth drawn to a flame or a wounded animal running toward home, Ren turned to her. He was ensnared by her and the idea of a new life of love and happiness.

The little scenario on the stone bench had proven that where Kyoko was concerned, all logic and forethought flew right out the window.

But Ren just couldn't let _that_ go. Wasn't starting over the same as running away, shirking his responsibility, turning his back on Rick?

Back then, Kuon had turned his back on Rick one too many times, and now Kuon was a _Murderer_.

For the second time, Ren realized that he had stopped, mid-form. With a heavy sigh, he walked over to the side, abandoning the half-finished kata altogether. Leaning back against the wall, he closed his eyes and ran a hand down his face. Maybe he could just wing it…

Biting back a scoff, Ren admonished himself. Tsuruga Ren – Agent T – did not just 'wing it'.

But…

With another heavy sigh, Ren glanced at the clock above the door and clambered to his feet. It was time to meet her, and he had no plan. What other choice did he have?

Things would probably work out for the best… Right?

 **-x-**

Miroku sighed and ran a hand through his long, dyed-blonde hair.

"Mu. You're worried."

At his superior's voice, Miroku glanced up, slightly annoyed. Of course he was worried; his best friend was still in captivity with that stupid LME group. Who knew what they were doing to Reino – while Miroku himself was being forced under orders to sit around and twiddle his thumbs.

As if reading his mind, the dark-haired man sitting across the desk from Miroku said, "If you're worried about Rho, don't be. The LME unit doesn't torture for information."

"But what about the PSIA!" Miroku demanded, his frustrations exploding. "They don't give a damn about—"

"Mu…"

At Delta's warning tone, the assassin's jaw snapped shut. Despite the fact that Miroku had dozens of high profile kills under his belt, the master spy still scared the living shit out of him. Miroku had heard the stories.

Meanwhile, Delta was calmly sorting through a folder of papers on his desk. The light caught the reflection off his wire-rimmed glasses, and the Vie Ghoul assassin shivered at the illusion that his superior had no eyes.

"I didn't call you in today to talk about Rho's capture," Delta said as he flipped a lengthy document over. "I wanted to let you know that the Vie Ghoul are off the next target."

Shit. Miroku bit back his curse. He'd been waiting to finally stick it to that uppity creep of an accountant – especially after having to babysit his greasy ass for so long. However, it made sense, given that Reino was not available, but then who else would Delta dispatch?

"Oh no." It dawned on him. "Kappa?"

Delta merely nodded and picked up another paper. "Yes, we need to plug the leak that Yamashita has somehow opened."

The assassin tried to avoid wincing; he never liked Kappa.

While mulling over his distaste for the field operative's underhanded tactics, he caught a glimpse of a photograph on his boss's desk.

"Who's the scary chick?"

A small smile ghosted across Delta's mouth, thoughtful but twisted with irony.

"Councilor Mogami Saena," Delta pulled the headshot of the female politician to the center of his desk. He looked up at Miroku, and his smile broadened.

"She is the future."

 **-x-**

* * *

A couple of notes:

.As far as my research shows, elections in Japan are pretty different than elections in America. Instead of a proxy "popular" vote through the electoral college that somewhat directly impacts the election of one official or another for President, in Japan, the population votes for local officials (House of Representatives and House of Councillors) who then convene and elect the Prime Minister. Some House of Councillor members are not appointed by a local district but by an internal vote of some politicians. This is how Saena and Toudou have been appointed.

.In regards to Saena rejecting Kanae's tea, it's considered poor manners to outright reject a drink that has been prepared by a host. Hence, she's very blunt/rude. However you want to take that.

.Also, tidbit of juicy world-building that didn't make it into the main plot, but Asami Haruki and Ogata Hiroaki are married with a toddler son. Asami has kept her maiden name since she is a well-known producer, and her name holds sway in her industry.

.And Miroku is Reino's friend from Vie Ghoul, for those who have trouble remembering him. He's the one who convinced Reino to join the band in the first place, and I'm pretty sure that Miroku is the drummer... Don't quote me on that.

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **Frozen in Idaho** – Thank you so much for the review! It's such a compliment to hear that I've managed to keep the great things about Skip Beat, just transplanted everyone into a different world. That, in my opinion, means it is at least a half decent AU story. :) Thank youuuu!

 **MWEH** – Chapter 427 is up on most of the manga sites! I feel like the audition is exciting because it's very action-packed, but the emotional impact and the gravitas is less than her Mio and Natsu creation arcs. Maybe because we don't have a direct Ren-helping-Kyoko-develop-her-character scene. Haha, but I feel like Nakamura-sensei still has some tricks up her sleeve, so I'm withholding judgment until the end! Thanks for the reassurance that the plot wasn't lagging. I feel like I'm moving things forward… but I also am heavily biased. Lol. It's always nice to get another opinion. Thank you again for reviewing!

 **cleocat333** – Yeah, I don't like this scene either in the original work, not only because Kyoko falls for Sho's manipulation, but also because at that point in the story it just seems… off, somehow. Like Kyoko is coming to terms with the fact that she really does love Ren, and has taken steps to overcome her thirst for revenge. This scene kind of always seemed slightly OOC because it's such a step back for her… which is why I plopped it much earlier along the plot. Because it fits her emotional and mental state _now_ , not later when she's already in love with Ren. I dunno. Just a strange choice from the author IMHO. BUT I still love SB :3 And thanks so much for your kind words of encouragement! They were very much appreciated and precious to me. Thank you!

 **Shizuhoe** – Question answered! Ren is in the dojo working off some steam. Hehehe As for Yashiro and Maria, we'll get a glimpse of their reactions next week! And maybe get a glimpse much later of how good Maria is at cursing people… Muhahaha The Heel Siblings are a little while off, but mostly because I decided to stick a couple chapters of straight up (purposeful) fluff after the interrogation. Heh heh heh… I had a LOT of fun writing those! Thanks for reading and reviewing as always!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Thanks for the review! And Maria-chan says thanks as well. ;) Maria is indeed an oasis of childish sass and innocent wisdom, and I love her so much for it.

 **JeremyVD** – HAH! That's a great loophole that I hadn't even considered! As for DarkRen… Muahhaha… You shall see, you shall see… ;) Thanks again for the review and the encouragement!


	13. Chapter 13

Hello loyal readers!

I think with the way my schedule looks this month, I'll be able to continue with the weekly chapter updates! Also, if my muse keeps up, I'm considering after this story is done, to do a series of short one-shot side stories in this AU. There are so many stories to tell (Kyoko's first mission, Yashiro's hacker days, Kyoko bonding with Ren as he's on his mission sick, etc), but sadly none of them fit into this story. Something I'll keep thinking about…

Anyhoo, this week we have Yashiro and Maria's reactions to the promise Sho weaseled out of Kyoko as well as the long-awaited interrogation of Reino!

Hope you all enjoy! Don't forget to add the follow/fave/review at the end if you like what you're reading! It really would mean the world to me. :)

* * *

 **CH13**

"Tsuruga-san said that he is heading down from the dojo right now," reported Lory's dark-skinned aide as he bowed at the waist. His black, wavy hair fell gallantly across the patch covering one eye. "He said he would be here in five minutes."

"Good. Very good," mused President Takarada as he stroked his goatee. In his long, burgundy velvet coat and matching tri-corner hat with white feather plume, he seemed quite at odds with the stark, concrete room. Normally he would have been seated in an opulent, red velvet throne befitting a pirate king, but he was too fidgety to sit still.

It was unnerving to the point of the uncanny how well their enemy knew the LME unit. Meanwhile, Lory knew next to nothing about this enigmatic organization. It was a power-differential that would keep any master spy up at night. But here was the first step in the right direction, which is one of the reasons why he decided to keep the assassin, despite the trouble.

Lory hadn't had to deal with something messy like an interrogation in a long time. His eyes narrowed at the cause of his woes, who was currently sitting in the next room, facing a one-way mirror, which allowed Lory to watch him.

With his poisons, the assassin had made himself quite the clever nuisance. Hopefully, his promise to talk to Mogami-san would end all of this messiness.

Although, there was the added complication of whether or not to trust what came out of the man's mouth…

Lory's eyes narrowed further as he watched the self-afflicted poison expert draw a long, skeletal finger along the metal table in front of him, rubbing at the dust that clung to his fingertips. The man pointedly quirked a brow at the one-way mirror. Clearly, the assassin was not under the naïve impression that it was just a mirror.

'What is this man playing at?'

The door to the observation room creaked open, and Lory turned, surprised to see Yashiro and his granddaughter in heated conversation.

"I _still_ say you should have let me rip out some of his hair," Maria huffed at the glasses-wearer. She marched across the room to cling to her grandfather's leg. "It would've made a much lovelier, stronger jinx! Isn't that right, Grandfather?"

Yashiro bowed politely to the President before raising his hands helplessly at his bewildered boss. Maria continued to ramble angrily.

"After all that scum did to Onee-sama, we shouldn't have just let him leave like that," she pouted as Lory knelt down to her level. At 8 years old, going on 9, Maria was no longer at the age where he could just pick her up and whisk her cares away with soothing words and chocolate.

"Now, Maria, what is the matter?"

"That punk, Fuwa Sho!" The loyal young girl burst out, frustrations spilling over into near tears as she described the unfair promise the hotel heir had weaseled out of her precious Onee-sama.

Through years of experience in subterfuge, Lory was able to hide the majority of his growing, thunderous anger. That impudent man had an uncanny tack for worming his way back into his Number One LoveMe girl's life. This was going to set his grand scheme back a few steps.

'But she was just voicing aloud the fears that were inside her anyhow,' Lory mused to himself. 'Those feelings were bound to hold her back, whether they were expressed verbally or not.'

"On the bright side, Maria-chan," Yashiro smiled and said reassuringly, "I doubt that Kyoko-chan will ever have to see Fuwa Sho ever again."

The young girl crossed her arms, digging her chin determinedly into her chest.

"Hmph! I'm still cursing him anyhow."

Somewhat satisfied, President Takarada turned his attention to Yashiro. "So, where is Mogami-kun?"

"Kyoko-chan is waiting outside in the hallway for Ren," said the tech support. "She said something about needing to get focused."

Then Yashiro snapped his fingers, and his eyes lit up. "I completely forgot! President, the main reason why I was coming down here was to give you an update about the Delta server hack."

Both Takaradas' heads snapped up, instantly at attention. The whole LME unit knew about the intelligence breakthrough that came via the Dark Moon virus.

Last year when Ren had first gone to the Fuwa mansion to protect Nanokura Mimori, and came back with Kyoko instead, he had managed to stick a tracker on the assailants before they retreated when the police showed up. The tracker had led the LME unit to Yamashita Sadao's property before going dark.

That was where the Hongo family had made its first appearance, contacting Sadao for accounting purposes. After all, he had a reputation for being willing to handle money that was not entirely ethically obtained.

Despite it being her first mission and very soon after being unwittingly 'drafted' into the LME unit, Kyoko had demonstrated a remarkable talent for espionage work. Afterward, Lory had offered her a permanent position. Bent on unearthing some unsavory tidbit of info on Fuwa Sho, Kyoko had accepted.

"So Ren was able to sneak away to stick the 'rubber ducky' USB into Yamashita's computer, which downloaded the Dark Moon virus," summarized Yashiro as he pushed up on the bridge of his glasses, "allowing me to set up multiple points of entry into the computer and internet connection."

Yashiro took a pause and the Takarada duo leaned forward, anticipating. But the tech support continued, oblivious. "Which is much easier than it looks. Setting up an MITM program to intercept outgoing data, then using that information to breech the connected servers was almost a walk in the park. But Delta must have some pretty good people on their tech squad, because dodging security undetected has been getting harder and harder–"

"Yashiro-san," Maria tried not to groan. "While we're young…"

"Ah. Sorry. I get carried away sometimes."

"White Hat," barked Lory, using the tech support's old hacktivist moniker. This caught the man's attention.

Yashiro cleared his throat. "Right. So we've only been able to get the stray, less-encrypted messages sent out via Delta's servers, until now. Hence, guarding Representative Takemura's son, and Ren's Yokohama missions. We aren't at full penetration quite yet; but we are now getting through the tougher encryptions. Apparently, this guy –" Yashiro jerked his thumb at the glass, pointing to the man on the other side "—is the real deal. His tag is 'Rho.'"

"Like the Greek letter?"

"It would seem from their communications that all their operatives take code names from the Greek alphabet. The operative captured on the second kidnapping attempt on Nanokura-san – the one who almost blew up Kijima-san and Momose-san – was named 'Upsilon.'"

The President paused, pensive. "We still have no confirmation on what their goal is?"

Yashiro merely shook his head.

"Not yet, at least," Maria said confidently, small fists cocked on hips.

At that moment, Lory's aide opened the door again, bowed crisply, and stated, "Tsuruga-san is here. I've given him the earpieces."

Nodding curtly, the President turned to face the window. "Yashiro-san, Maria-chan, if you'd please."

Maria knew better than to argue, even though everyone could tell she wanted to stay for her Onee-sama. However, no one knew how this interrogation was going to be conducted. It was an unprecedented event. So both Maria let Yukihito lead her by the hand, and the two left, shutting the door quietly behind them.

Now alone with his assistant, Lory murmured thoughtfully to himself. "Their goal is uncertain, but… I have some ideas. Time to weed out a few."

He called out to his aide, "Send in Ren and Mogami-kun."

 **-x-**

 _Kyoko raised her hand and slapped Reino soundly across the face. The pale, silver-haired man fell back, stunned. Agent T leaned against the door, completely nonchalant._

 _"And THAT'S what you get for drugging me, you stupid Beagle!" Kyoko crowed, victorious as Reino whimpered on the floor. "Now answer the question! Or else…"_

"Mogami-san…"

 _Reino scrambled to his knees, pleading. "B-b-but I don't even know what Delta is! Please–!"_

"Mogami-san…?"

 _Grinning fiercely, Kyoko raised her hand again. This time it held a small blue rock. "Wrong answer, Beagle! I warned you—!"_

"MOGAMI-SAN!"

Startled from her daydream, Kyoko blinked rapidly. "What?"

A tall man stared down at her, a bemused smile on his face. The stark hallway lights backlit his head, giving the illusion of a golden halo of hair.

"Corn?"

Then the illusion was gone. The fairy prince took a quick step back, and the light shifted, revealing the shocked face of Kyoko's dark-haired senpai. He was wearing a soft navy blue button up shirt tucked into dark slacks. His hair held a wet sheen, which indicated that he had just recently showered and hadn't had time to properly dry his hair.

'Probably just got back from the dojo,' Kyoko noted from a far corner of her mind. Unbidden, her stomach performed a small flip-flop.

"C…Corn?" Ren repeated hesitantly with a growing, glittery smile. His polite, gentleman's mask was out full-force. "Mogami-san, do you mean to say that I look like your rock?"

Kyoko blinked before an embarrassed flush swept over her face. Wanting to quickly appease the man, she held her hands up and gesticulated wildly. "Tsuruga-san, I certainly did not mistake you for a rock. There was a boy I once knew who was named Corn. My rock is named after him. And I was thinking about the rock, and then you showed up…!"

She stopped waving her hands as Ren's smile traveled to his eyes, and he hid a chuckle. Kyoko felt relieved, but also wary. She never could tell what caused all of this man's vast mood swings…

"Please don't be worried, Mogami-san. I understand," Ren said with a small wave of his hand and a warm smile.

Thoroughly reassured, Kyoko smiled back, a warmth filling her with… _relief_ , surely. Definitely relief… because her senpai wasn't angry with her.

"Are you ready?" Agent T asked, and offered her an earpiece while screwing his own into one ear. The earpiece was a small, flesh-colored piece of opaque plastic with electronics embedded. Though similar to her comm-link, the earpiece was smaller and probably had fewer features, most likely only good for short-range communication. Kyoko knew that the President would be in the next room to give question prompts and orders if necessary.

"You've never conducted an interrogation before, right?"

The auburn-haired woman stuck the piece into her ear, ensuring it was firmly fixed by giving her head a slight shake. "No. Have you?"

She glanced up when Ren took a heartbeat too long to answer. Kyoko was just in time to see him clear a frown from his face.

Her senpai looked down at her and quirked a very even, calculated smile. "Well… Let's just see how it goes."

Ren, Kyoko noted thoughtfully as her senpai reached for the doorknob, never answered her question.

 **-x-**

No matter how much Kyoko had mentally prepared, nothing went quite as she had anticipated.

Ren opened the creaky door to the disused room, and Agent M took in the spartan décor – one brushed aluminum table with matching metallic chairs sat across from a wide, room-length one-way mirror. Kyoko couldn't see them, but she knew the room was mic'ed, so the President could hear from the other room. As soon as the two agents entered, the man occupying the chair facing the mirror spoke.

"So, you came after all, _Kyoko_?" the silver-haired assassin said. His monotone fell awkwardly flat on the concrete walls of the interrogation chamber. The man was lounging as best he could in handcuffs, shackles, and the small metal chair. "Oh, and you brought a friend. How quaint."

At his first sentence, Kyoko bristled, too unnerved to take the seat across from him. "How do you know–?"

"Your name?" Reino finished, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. "The moment I touched you at the Prime Minister's party, I knew _all_ about you."

"Creepy demon-spawn from Hell!" Instantly on guard, Kyoko retorted, "You had better behave–!"

Ren loudly cleared his throat, catching his partner's attention. She shrunk back, annoyed that she had risen to the assassin's bait.

"I believe we have a time limit before you expire, Reino." Ren stated as he strode toward the table and sank gracefully into one of the chairs across from the silver-haired man. "So if you want to live, let's cut to the chase. What is Delta?"

While Reino made a big show of glaring at Ren, Kyoko followed her senpai's lead and also sat down at the table.

"I'm not afraid of dying," drawled Reino in a bored tone, examining his pointed fingernails. "I think I'd rather enjoy it. So you can stuff your empty threats."

They were going to get nowhere. Even a newbie like Kyoko could tell the man's attitude was anything but helpful.

"Why did you want to speak to me, then?" she asked, suspicious. "If you don't intend to tell us anything of use, what's the point?"

The thin smile on Reino's lips widened by a fraction. "Why, of course, to see how you were faring, dear Kyoko. I haven't been able to forget your deliciously dark aura since our last meeting."

He reached a long-fingered hand out to catch a wisp of her auburn hair. Kyoko jerked back in her seat as the fear on her face swiftly turned to anger.

"That's it! I warned you to behave, Beagle!" A malicious, Mio-like smirk formed on Kyoko's lips, as she pulled her secret weapon from her pocket, thrusting it in the assassin's face. "Hah! Behold! The ultimate destroyer of evil – and despair!"

"What is this?" Reino plucked the blue stone from Kyoko's hand. "It's just a rock…"

While Kyoko sat, eye still twitching at the swift failure of her ultimate weapon, Reino froze. His gasp wrenched Kyoko from her paralysis of disbelief as she and Ren watched the assassin's eyes lose focus. Slowly, trembling, the silver-haired man looked down at the palm of his hand in horror.

 _Clatter_.

"Hey!" Kyoko yelped indignantly as she leapt forward in her seat to reclaim her treasure off the metal table. "Don't drop it!"

"No!" Reino performed a small dance of anxiety, reaching forward to snatch the rock back, but he hastily changed his mind and retreated, clearly unwilling to touch it again. "You need to throw that away!"

"What? No!" Kyoko snapped, continuing to check Corn for cracks. "It was given to me by a fairy prince!"

"A fairy-? More like a devil! That rock is basically a curse. Its former owner has imbued it with so much sorrow and hatred. You could almost say that the former owner himself was cursed! Cursed to be trapped as a helpless, useless shadow. A walking embodiment of misfortune for all whom he loved–"

A flesh-colored blur cut swiftly through the air. Kyoko jolted back on instinct as Ren's hand shot forward.

The normally composed agent fisted the front of Reino's crumpled dress shirt so tightly that the collar of the shirt gathered together to choke the assassin. Kyoko watched in alarm as Ren's knuckles whitened along with Reino's already pale face.

"T-T-san!" She yelped in a panic.

"Enough." Ren's voice was hard, laced with anger. His eyes narrowed. Fueling Kyoko's growing fright, she noticed that he didn't bother to hide his emotions. Was this an act?

'This man… Who is he now?'

The earpiece crackled to life in Kyoko's ear.

"Ren!" The President shouted, "What the hell are you doing?"

At this reprimanding, Ren blinked in realization, his grip slackening. Kyoko worriedly glanced at her senpai's face. This wasn't an act.

On his half, the assassin was struggling to bring his manacled hand up to tug away the agent's grip. However, once Reino touched Ren's skin, the assassin's eyes went wide, and he froze, paralyzed. Then he jerked his hand back, as if burned by a red-hot poker, and let out a panicked yelp. He looked wildly between the two agents.

"But you! You're—!"

"Reino-san. I think we have gotten very far off topic…" Ren interrupted, the calm in his voice growing with each word. However, instinctively, Kyoko leaned away. While a normal person might have considered Ren's sparkling façade polite and self-possessed, she could sense a tense, almost aggressive undertone to his voice and body language, even as he relaxed his hold.

"What is Delta?"

Reino winced away from Ren. "Fine! Fine. I can handle the cold embrace of Death, but I have no wish to be mauled and dismembered by a Lion!"

"Ren," barked the President via earpiece. "Let him go. This is not how the LME unit conducts its business. Mogami-kun will take over for now."

Ignoring Kyoko's confusion and concern, Ren avoided her eyes as he let go of Reino's shirtfront. Although Agent T attempted to hide it, Kyoko's sharp eyes noted that her partner's hand was trembling slightly. He stood from the chair and retreated to a back corner of the room.

With one last worried glance at her senpai, Kyoko switched seats to directly face Reino. The man was gingerly rubbing his chaffed neck.

Kyoko cleared her throat. "Reino-san, please answer Agent T's question. What is Delta?"

"Mu is going to kill me," Reino muttered, shooting Ren a disgruntled glower. He paused a moment as he hung his head, thinking.

Kyoko was just about to prompt him again when he spoke.

"Delta is not so much a 'what' as a 'who.' The leader. No one really knows who he is – just a handful of stories. Most of us were just going about our daily lives when we got an invitation to join him."

"'We?'"

Reino shrugged, gradually regaining his disinterested affect. "Just your average rag-tag band of mercenaries, smugglers, assassins, hackers – the usual. Maybe 30 or maybe 300. We hardly ever get to meet or team up with the others. I have no idea how many other people he has."

At a prompt from the President, Kyoko asked, "What does he want?"

Reino paused, thinking. "Why do you think the boss's tag is 'delta'? It's not alpha or even beta. The symbol for delta–" He traced a triangle on the metal table in front of him. "—is often used in chemistry for 'change'. And that's what he wants."

"Change…" mused Kyoko.

"If you haven't noticed yet, my dear Kyoko, this world is rotten," Reino intoned flippantly with a small wave of his hand. "The evil prosper and the good, innocent people get trampled underfoot."

The image of an infuriating blonde man flashed through Kyoko's mind. She grit her teeth.

"You're not exactly an angel yourself, Vie Ghoul," Agent T called from across the room as he leaned against the wall, arms crossed.

Reino held his hands up, in mock defense. "I never said _I_ was on board with the boss's philosophy."

"Then why are you helping him?"

"It was something to do," the assassin said simply with a careless wave of his hand. "And because drenching the world even deeper into blackness appeals to me."

Agent M's eyes narrowed. "You're sick."

"Oh? Am I really more evil than that little snot who bought drugs from me so he could incapacitate and take advantage of a female classmate?"

"Takemura Ryuji," Kyoko noted grimly. "So _you_ were the one selling him drugs out of that love hotel."

"He recognized me at the party while I was on another assignment," Reino said with another gesture of innocence. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Why did you do it?"

"Which? Tranq the brat or sell him drugs?"

Kyoko's mouth was set in a grim line. "Let's start with the drugs."

"Drug dealing's not usually my style. I'd much rather prefer–" the assassin slowly slid his thumb across his throat, eyes glinting.

Kyoko felt herself unconsciously swallow hard.

"But I have my reasons." Reino smiled a small, cruel smile. "Because the little shit was asking for it. And because his father has been pocketing campaign funds on the side for years. And because I do what I'm told."

"So it's vigilante justice," Ren pointed out as he walked back to the table. He hovered behind Kyoko's shoulder, arms folded over his chest. "That's not going to get Delta very far. What is he really after? What kind of 'change' is he looking for?"

Reino tipped his head to the side and stared blankly at the two – a pale imitation of innocence. "Does a puzzle piece know whether it depicts a rose or a grave?"

'Lions, puzzles, roses, graves – this Beagle guy is weird,' Kyoko thought to herself. 'And what twisted logic! Punishing wrong-doers by enabling them to further their misdeeds? How does that _change_ anything?'

In her earpiece, the President was saying something.

Following his orders, Kyoko leaned forward and said authoritatively, "But you can tell us about _your_ puzzle piece. Who was your next contact supposed to be?"

Up until this point, Reino had been surprisingly open with the LME agents. However, now he hesitated. Kyoko could sense his mind performing mental gymnastics, calculating risk and reward. The assassin glanced up at Ren.

Her senpai glared with uncharacteristically open hostility.

"Who's the next contact, Reino." This time, from Ren, it was not a question.

The enemy assassin paused for another moment, weighing his options. Just when Kyoko was certain that the man would not relinquish his secret, Reino sighed and muttered, "His name is Yamashita Sadao."

 **-x-**

* * *

\- A Rubber Ducky USB is a modified USB stick that a computer reads like a keyboard, which can be pre-programmed with certain commands to install malware, etc on people's computers. This is a terrible explanation, but a better layman's explanation can be found on the Game Theorist's YouTube channel. I think it was one of their Watch_Dogs episodes. Pretty interesting stuff!

\- "White hat" is the slang term for an ethical computer hacker, usually used by companies to test the protection of websites and such from malicious hackers. Backstory for Yashiro: he wasn't quite a White Hat – he was more of a Gray Hat (using hacking abilities to find flaws in tech that can be sold to governments/interested parties, presumably for the public's greater good – ex: the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone hacker).

\- Also, I'm surprised that no one has noted yet the irony of Yashiro being a computers and technology expert. Lol

\- As for Reino's backstory, he was at the PM's birthday gala gathering support for Delta when Ryuji recognized him. Delta is having Reino do fewer assassinations and more miscellaneous work, but that's just because Delta needs certain people alive… Again, the story was too crowded to fit that in, but hopefully that answers some questions!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **cleocat333** – THANK YOU SO MUCH! I think I read your review like three times, because I was so encouraged by it. It's such an honor as an author to hear such glowing praise from a reader. As for the title, I've been wondering if I should change it. I initially stuck with "Spy Beat" on a whim, and never bothered to think up a better title. Haha I'll probably think about it some more! Thank you again!

 **Shizuhoe** – Hopefully you like the fluff chapters to come, then! It's so interesting to hear you say that you didn't like the Heel arc as much, because I typically hear the opposite! What about the arc turned you off? As for Delta, fufufu~! Not bad guesses! Ohhh, I'd have to be super evil (and a super masochist) to make Yashiro the secret bad guy. As for Ren's thoughts about Rick, all will be revealed in time! Thanks again for the review!

 **MWEH** – I agree with you! I think the story line of Erika's "accident" still has yet to be cleared up, so the Momiji audition is bound to get more intense from now on. Also, Kanae has to show off her Chidori! I have to say that aside from the Ren and Kyoko scenes, my favorite parts of Skip Beat are where Kyoko is finding and polishing her characters. As for Delta, fufufu~! Not bad guesses! That'd be an awesome twist if it was actually Rick! Thanks as always for your review!

 **SilverInu93** – Hehehe, hopefully your question about Reino was answered! As for Saena, we shall see~! She's definitely not going to get off scott free, so don't worry. Thanks for the review! It's much appreciated!

 **JeremyVD** – That's a good point! Maybe that's what Nakamura-sensei has up her sleeve to get Kyoko out of that promise to Sho. It also seems like the two are working more toward a friendly rivalry, instead of one based on hatred. But totes agree with you, that Sho has pushed Kyoko too far away for her to consider him romantically anymore. As for Saena, we shall see~! Maybe she has a good reason – or… at least a real reason – why she's doing what she's doing! Thanks as always for your review!

 **Guest** – Thank you! Hope you liked the "more" ;)


	14. Chapter 14

Hello loyal readers,

I didn't fall down a well or get kidnapped by aliens! Sorry for the long break. I had 3 graduations to attend the past two weeks (one of which was out of state and one of which was my own!), hence didn't really have much time to write, edit, or publish anything.

Today is the first in a two-part segment that has only tenuous connections to the main plot, but is mostly an excuse for me to write fluffy Ren x Kyoko moments + fun action sequences. It's also suuuper long – semi makes up for the fact that I was gone for so long!

These two chapters have been some of the most fun for me to write out of the whole story so far, and I'm excited to share them with you!

* * *

 **CH14**

They had two weeks to prepare for their confrontation with the next Vie Ghoul mercenary. Yamashita Sadao, the high-profile accountant who kept the books for Delta's organization, met with a Vie Ghoul member every month. Reino said that his boss didn't trust the man, and ordered the assassins-for-hire to keep him on a short leash.

After another half an hour of bickering and threats, "Rho" had coughed up the location and time that the meeting was supposed to take place. Two weeks, 10:00 p.m., at the Kabuki Chou Hotel.

The very next day, amidst strategy meetings with Matsushima-san and intense sparring sessions with Hiou-kun focusing on how to take down an assassin, the President had called both Ren and Kyoko to his office.

Now, less than half a day later, Ren stood in the middle of a wide courtyard, still bewildered, letting hordes of students on field trips, clingy couples, and parents with small children wash by him. He was wearing casual clothes today – jeans cuffed up over tan sneakers with a burnt orange t-shirt under a long gray cardigan. A checkered triangle scarf, a black newsboy hat, and a disposable coffee cup in one hand completed the ensemble.

Ren was pretty sure that Woods-san had just ripped the look off a UniQlo advertisement. Kyoko, in his opinion, had fared much better.

Ten had outfitted the young woman in a creamy white cable knit sweater that stopped mid-thigh, worn over black leggings that tucked into suede boots with fur trim. Her typical perky auburn locks were hidden under a tastefully curled short black wig, topped with a cutesy peach bow headband.

Ren had to quickly glance away. He would have to take it up with Woods-san later. It was a crime! Definitely a crime how cute his partner looked!

"Tsu… Tsuruga-san…" Kyoko murmured hesitantly. Ren could tell that she wasn't used to referring to him by his real name while in public. "Are we really going to do this…?"

"Just think of it as more training, Mogami-san," he said after some swift mental gymnastics. Ren hoped he sounded more convinced than he felt.

In all honesty, when the President had told them to take the day off, Ren was insulted. How could he take an entire day off when half of the LME unit was preparing a mission just for him and his partner?

However, the President wouldn't take 'no' for an answer and had, in typical Lory fashion, verbally boxed the two agents into corner. After only a minute and a half of mental-warfare, President Takarada had handed Ren a briefing folder and sent them packing, telling them that they were to report to the enclosed location at 0900 sharp the next morning.

But the entire ordeal was suspect, because in their briefing folder, the agents had found two crisp admission tickets to the local theme park, Edo Land. Printed on the tickets, the park's cheery fox and pig mascots had seemed to mock the agents' confusion and growing despondency.

The only other thing in the folder was a sheet of stationary – most likely from a limited edition collectable set received by pre-ordering the most moe _otome_ game of the season. Anime characters littered the paper's background, and on it the President had carelessly scrawled, 'You are a lovey-dovey couple. No work allowed! No need to say thank you~!'

Remembering the note and its implications, Ren felt a small, nervous weight settle in his gut. If he didn't know better, he could have sworn that the meddling 'Lovemon' had figured out _everything_ that had transpired between him and Kyoko. Considering that Yukihito had the opportunity to save a copy of the security footage from the Prime Minister's birthday party before he deleted it from the government's internal archive, this was a real possibility.

At least the President hadn't thrown him a parade.

Thoughts drifting to Kyoko, Ren glanced down. The poor girl looked like she didn't know whether to be petrified in fear, murderously angry, or painfully bitter. The three emotions seemed to cycle endlessly over her face.

To rub salt in her wounds, couples swarmed around them, laughing and calling out to one another. Hand holding, arm clutching, hugging, smiling, kissing. Ren fought with his own expression, trying to shake off the look usually reserved for when he had eaten an incredibly large meal. He snuck another glance at the forbidden love of his life. How was he going survive the next 12 hours?

He still didn't have a satisfactory strategy to keep Kyoko at an arm's length. At least, not one that he could guarantee he wouldn't self-sabotage. It was like walking into a yakuza den without a bargaining chip. It was something that the legendary Agent T just _didn't do_.

But Ren couldn't help himself.

"Tsuruga-san… If it troubles you so much, maybe we should skip this mission," Kyoko muttered. Apparently, she had seen the grim look on his face. "Even if it is an order from the President, I'm sure that going on a d-dat—an _outing_ with your kouhai would be an overwhelmingly miserable experience for you. We could tell the President that I came down with a terrible case of food poisoning, or that the park was closed, or that terrorists abducted us, or–"

Ren felt his face soften. He shook his head and smiled down at her, even though she looked as though she might commit seppuku at any moment. "No, let's go. The President probably has some hidden agenda, but it will likely be in our best interest to follow orders."

Besides, an irrational and self-destructive but extremely insistent part of him very much wanted to go on this date with her.

She nodded, slowly, begrudgingly. A smooth chuckle escaped him, and he held a hand out.

"Come on, _dear_. We're just going to draw attention, standing here and gawking."

It was astounding to Ren the number of unnatural shades Kyoko's face could turn in less than three seconds. Needless to say, she didn't move to take his hand. Rational thought swiftly leaving him, Ren couldn't keep himself from teasing her.

"Would you rather–" he leaned in, so their faces were only centimeters apart "—that I wrap my arms around you and hold you close?"

Oh, why hello Mio-san.

Chuckling to himself and secretly grinning like a fool, the dark-haired man turned on his heel and strode confidently forward, but slowly enough so that his partner could catch up once she had recovered.

Sure enough, a beat later, Kyoko had trotted up next to him, clutching her dark blue purse to her side. The look she flashed him was minutely familiar as Aiko, but there was also a determined smile on her face that was all Kyoko.

Her expression practically shouted, 'I won't lose to you again!'

Unable to hide the glint of excitement in his eyes, Ren grinned down at her.

After presenting their tickets at the Edo Land gate, the partners drifted along the flow of park-goers funneling into a small series of tents. Ren pretended to sip his coffee thoughtfully as he waited in line. Security officers in crisp uniforms stood at the head of the lines, checking bags and ushering people through metal detectors. It was certainly a sign of the times when even a nation like Japan was performing precautionary security checks at places of mass entertainment.

Once they had reached the front, Kyoko handed her purse to one of the security guards and walked through the metal detector. After a cursory check, the security guard returned her bag with a small bow.

Ren similarly placed his keys, wallet, belt, and coffee cup in the small plastic tray provided before walking through the rectangular gateway of the metal detector, collecting his items on the other side.

Off to the side of the line, the LME agent was stringing his belt through the loops of his jeans when he heard Kyoko give a sharp gasp.

"Did you see –?"

Alarmed, Agent T glanced up, instantly on guard. A group of middle schoolers clamored past the two, chattering about which rides they wanted to go on first. Several sets of parents were rearranging children in strollers, and one couple was asking a security guard for directions to the nearest restroom.

"Mogami-san, what is it?" His eyes darted to and fro, trying to pick up on the trouble Kyoko had seen.

A quick glance down showed Kyoko staring into the distance with her head cocked to the side, her bow tilting adorably. After a moment, she laughed lightly, looking up at him. Suave Agent T's heart might have skipped a beat.

"My apologies, Tsuruga-san." She smiled bashfully, playing with the hem of her sweater. "I think I'm having trouble with my day off of work. It appears that I'm just being very paranoid."

Thinking of his instinctive reaction to quickly scout for danger, Ren finished buckling his belt and grinned boyishly down at her. "I know exactly what you mean, Mogami-san."

Tossing his empty coffee cup in a nearby trash bin, Ren offered a hand to his fellow workaholic. "Shall we?"

Despite the long moment of hesitation, the beet red shade of her face, and the robotic jerkiness of her arm, this time Kyoko stepped forward and placed her hand in his.

 **-x-**

It was apparent that the creators of Edo Land were aiming for a romanticized and commercialized experience, not an authentic one.

The main boulevard leading into the park, Tokugawa Dori, was modeled after a bustling commercial district in the historical capital of Edo. Semi-replica but too-clean townhouses with blue tiled roofs lined the street. Shops displayed vertical cloth banners with the smiling faces of cartoon pigs and foxes and words like 'Delicious! Udon!' Street vendors in rickshaws also hawked their wares to the masses – mostly cheap hairpins, jewelry, and picture frames that had the Edo Land logo or character mascots on them.

Speakers, barely disguised on the upturned corner of each roof, continually blared upbeat J-pop renditions of traditional Japanese songs. The music intermittently dimmed for a polite, cutesy voice to announce show times for "A Lotus in the Mire – a live-action play, based on the hit TV drama."

In the distance, tall spires and swoops of modern rollercoasters with vaguely associated Tokugawa-era themes anachronistically broke the already-thin attempt at period immersion.

"What do you want to ride first?" Ren asked, shifting the foldout paper map in Kyoko's direction. They were off to the side, avoiding the flow of people down the central thoroughfare. His unwilling date quickly scanned through the lists of rides.

"D-Daimyo's Death Dive!" Kyoko eventually announced uneasily.

"Are you sure you don't want to do 'Orihime and Hikoboshi's Love Canal'?" He asked with an inward grin, enjoying her struggle to hide her horror. A twitchy, broken smile was the only thing that emerged. Then realization struck her eyes.

"If you want to, we can," Kyoko said, her smile morphing into one with genuine sparkle. She tilted her head to the side, cutely. "But I've always loved terrifyingly high free-fall drops. You know that, _dear_."

And with that, Ren knew that Kyoko had brilliantly dodged a bullet.

However, she still complained after the ride that he had grabbed her hand. Ren insisted, with a smile, that he had merely been frightened.

The morning and early afternoon passed quickly, with the duo hitting the next two biggest rollercoasters, allowing their stomachs to settle over a stage performance of _A Lotus in the Mire_. Then they took a lunch break at a small bento shop and caught a photo with Buton-kun and Kitsu-chan, the pig and fox mascots of Edo Land.

It was some time over lunch, during Kyoko's usual lecture that Ren should be eating balanced meals, that Ren noticed they were interacting normally. Not as senpai and kouhai. Not as undercover government agents. Not as Katsuki and Mio or as Aiko and Ryota. Not even as an overly affectionate, lovey-dovey couple like President Takarada had ordered them. But they were acting like Tsuruga Ren and Mogami Kyoko.

Now, as Ren sat across the ferris wheel gondola from his partner, he felt content. The bright mid-afternoon sun streamed into the glass car as he listened to her talk animatedly about her best friend in the whole wide world, 'Moko-san'.

After proclaiming her friend to be the absolutely most beautiful and talented woman in all of history, Kyoko lapsed into silence, having exhausted her list of Moko-san Superlatives.

Ren just continued to enjoy the moment, watching her as she gazed out the glass window of their orange gondola at the rapidly shrinking theme park below. The dark curls of her wig glinted in the light, and she played with the soft fabric at the neck of her sweater. Her headband was slightly askew, and Ren had almost worked up the courage to lean across the gondola to fix it, when Kyoko spoke again.

"Tsu…Tsuruga-san… Can I…" Her voice died out before she started again. "I mean, would it be possible if…"

"What is it, Mogami-san?" He made sure that his voice was as warm and inviting as he could muster. A fluttery sense of hope leapt from his stomach to his throat.

"I, your lowly kouhai, have a great desire to ask you a question!" She twitched into a ramrod-straight bow, sitting with her hands gripped tightly in her lap. Her intense expression looked as if Ren would fillet and pan-fry her at a moment's notice.

He should have known better than to hope with this girl. Balking at the sudden intrusion of titles and rank into their otherwise smooth progression toward normalcy, Ren could only flash what he hoped was a reassuring smile and nod.

"Go ahead."

"Tsuruga-san…" Her amber eyes flashed up, filled with concern but also a great measure of fear. There was a pregnant pause. "What… _happened_ during the interrogation?"

Ren's voice seemed to die in his throat. Even if he wanted to give an answer, where did he begin? Did he start with the years of failure and the Tragedy or did he start at the very beginning, with a small blue rock and a young girl by a stream?

Seeming to take his silence for rebuke, Kyoko quickly backpedaled, and Agent T had to react quickly to slap his open palm between her forehead and the metal floor of their ferris wheel car.

While the poor girl continued to apologize for prying and promised to never question his judgment ever again, Ren heavily considered lying.

 _'It was merely a tactic. A calculated move. Don't worry, Mogami-san. Your senpai, as usual, had everything perfectly under control.'_

He should lie – throw up all the barriers he could lay his hands on. Push her away. Keep her away from his tainted past and his assuredly blood-stained future.

"Actually… It's shameful to say… but I lost control of myself." As soon as the words cleared his mouth, Ren inwardly cursed himself. But his regret was mingled with relief.

Kyoko looked surprised as she sat back up. "But… why?"

Ren paused again, his fear of her rejection too strong to allow him to continue in anything but half-truths.

"The type of person Reino was describing – he reminded me of… an old acquaintance. We used to be friends, but then I realized how toxic it was to be around him. So I… I left."

"Isn't that sad?"

"Maybe…" he said slowly. "But, I guess you can call it self-preservation."

The young woman was silent for several moments, a pained expression creeping gradually over her features.

"If that's the case, then maybe it was the same with Corn… The way that Beagle described him... Maybe all of Corn's friends left him too," she finally said, her voice low with melancholy. "I certainly wasn't much help. I never knew how much he was suffering on the inside."

Before he could catch himself, Ren leaned forward, his knees knocking into hers across the small gap between the seats. Kyoko stiffened at the physical contact, then froze when her senpai's hand cupped her chin.

"Was Corn a precious person in your life?" Ren asked her kindly.

"Yes," Kyoko squeaked, her eyes darting to the side. A blush crept over her cheeks. "He was irreplaceable! But –"

"Then I'm sure it was enough for him. I'm sure he knows," he interrupted, almost sternly, trying to block out her self-doubt with the force of his words. His thumb lightly stroked Kyoko's cheek. "I'm sure that wherever he is right now, he treasures you as well."

A slow smile blossomed on Kyoko's lips. Unbidden, the magnetism of the tender moment drew them closer.

Then the love-scarred woman became aware of their proximity, and she leapt back with a small yelp, her face burning a bright red. Caught in a cloudy mixture of amusement, disappointment, and relief, Ren watched the red fade to dark shadows over her visage. She began muttering to herself, a murderous aura swirling through the confines of the gondola.

"Mogami-san, please refrain from referring to me as an 'unholy and unparalleled playboy'. You really might hurt my feelings."

Appalled that she had apparently been speaking her thoughts aloud, Kyoko stiffened and whipped around to stare intently out the window.

Meanwhile, Ren had drifted into deep thought.

If Kyoko loved someone as pitiful as Kuon, then maybe he too could accept his past. But no. She didn't know the half of it. The Kuon – the Corn – who she knew was long gone as well, buried under poor decisions and anger and tragedy. Tsuruga Ren existed because even he himself had run away from Kuon – Mogami-san certainly would as well.

"Tsu-Tsuruga-san!"

Agent M's startled cry brought him out of his thoughts. Their car was topping its second revolution, and the entire park splayed out below them. Kyoko was glued raptly to one window, her eyes widened in concern.

In an instant, he was beside her, neither agent caring that he was leaning closely over her shoulder.

"Where?"

"In that back lot area, about due east!"

Ren's trained eye quickly swept about twenty degrees to the left. A small weight of dread began to work its way into his stomach.

In the park's much less glamorous back lot, visible only from the height of the ferris wheel, several figures chased down someone who appeared to be a park employee. The white and blue colors on his uniform and hat matched the ones they'd seen earlier that morning by the security tent.

The security guard tripped. Kyoko let out a little anguished gasp.

Catching up quickly, the figures – two? three? It was difficult to tell from their steep height – seemed to strike the man as he lay on the ground.

Ren noted that it was getting more difficult to see the struggle; their gondola had passed its apogee and was slowly crawling into a descent.

The last thing he saw were the figures dragging the man's body away. Then all was swallowed up in the tree-line.

A moment of stunned silence permeated the car before the two agents turned to look at each other.

"I thought I had misunderstood," Kyoko said haltingly as the ferris wheel continued to descend. "This morning, I saw several people jump over the fence to the back, bypassing the security tent. I'm not sure how many. It happened so fast that I thought maybe I was just being paranoid."

After another moment of silent shock, Ren almost laughed at the irony. So much for a day off of work.

The ferris wheel employee knocked on the gondola window as the car slid into its groove at the bottom and opened the door. With a short thank you to the employee, the two agents leapt out of the orange car and ran off toward the back lot.

 **-x-**

It was a simple matter to slip into the employee-only area after one of the animal mascots and his handler had exited the door.

To Ren, it felt almost as if he had stepped into another world. In contrast to the highly manicured environment of the amusement park, the back lot was all asphalt, air conditioning ducts, and rollercoaster cars out for maintenance scattered disjointedly among corrugated tin-roofed buildings.

The late afternoon sun slanted harshly off the metal roofs, and after a moment of disorientation, the two glanced at the ferris wheel and began to jog northeast.

After a few minutes of running at a decent clip and expertly hiding from park employees in the shadows of various buildings, Ren glanced down at Kyoko.

"What's wrong?"

"This place is terrible." Her pout deepened as she glanced at a disemboweled kimono-clad animatronic. "I feel like the magic is gone now…"

Ren barked a short laugh, as much air as he was able to surrender given their brisk pace. He was about to respond when Kyoko suddenly skid to a halt.

"It's up ahead!" Agent M said in a loud whisper, automatically taking Ren's lead to follow him into the shadow of a nearby building. She pointed to a colorful red and green "Edo Land Christmastime!" banner that was slung over a box of what Ren assumed were other season-specific decorations. "I remember seeing that banner from the ferris wheel."

Ren merely nodded in response, his hand wandering to the back of his waistband. Then he froze.

A small groan.

With a trained silent tread, Ren and Kyoko moved forward, toward the source of the sound. Kyoko watched their backs while Ren checked quickly for hostiles behind the various stacks of crates in their path. Behind one such stack, they found the security guard lying slumped and bleeding against a crate.

Agent T nodded to his partner, who stepped forward, handkerchief already in hand, to staunch the man's wounds. The senior agent continued to secure the area, ensuring there were no lingering thugs to ambush them.

Once the area was safe to his satisfaction, Ren returned to Kyoko's side.

"How bad is it?"

Her handkerchief was already tied around the middle-aged man's bleeding forehead. Kyoko was just finishing up her cursory first aid check, using her cell phone's flashlight to check the man's pupils as she opened his eyelids with one hand. Ren noted that the man's stained white shirt was hastily untucked. She had probably removed it to check for other wounds.

"Not terrible," she said with a small sigh of relief, pocketing her cell. "There's always a chance that he could be in danger of internal bleeding, but as far as I can tell, he only has a mild concussion, a decent scalp laceration, and two or three bruised ribs, but it looks like they just beat him unconscious and dragged him over here so nobody would run across him."

"They dragged him through there," Ren said, pointing to a curvature of blood smeared around the corner of the crate stacks. Something about the situation was bothering Ren, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "You stay with him. I'm going to see if they left anything behind."

"Unghh…."

Another groan, louder this time, interrupted Agent T. Kyoko took this as a good sign and began to shake the man's shoulder.

"Oji-san? Oji-san! Can you hear me?"

"Wha…?" The man's eyes fluttered open. He began to squint at Kyoko, as if the world were out of focus. Then his hands flew to his head, and he began to retch. Acting quickly, Kyoko rolled the man onto his side, away from herself. Ren felt himself automatically backpedal a step as the bilious smell of the man's vomit permeated the air.

Though frowning, Kyoko continued to support the guard, rubbing his back comfortingly. Finally when the man was done, she allowed him to roll onto his back.

"Oji-san?" She began again, this time glancing down at the metal nametag pinned to the man's white shirt. "Goto-san?"

Goto-san grunted with a grimace. His bloodied hand came up to clutch at his head again, feeling at the cloth that Kyoko had placed over his head wound, which seemed to be starting to clot. The salt and pepper of his close-cropped hair was rusty with dried blood.

"What… happened…?" He groaned.

"You were attacked," Ren said, still keeping one eye on their surroundings. Something was still niggling at his instincts, and Agent T felt on edge.

Goto only groaned weakly in reply, panting from his minor exertion and the pain. "Those bastards…"

"Who were they?" Kyoko asked, peeling back the bloody handkerchief to check that the bleeding had indeed stopped.

Goto tried to shake his head but grimaced at the effort.

"Can you tell us anything? Anything you remember?"

"I don't…" the guard mumbled, then a moment of clarity passed over his face. "They were wearing these…arm bands… Black with a red circle."

Clearly alarmed, Kyoko glanced up at Ren.

"The People of the Rising Sun," Agent T confirmed her suspicion.

"They…" Goto was frowning, eyes crimped closed in concentration. "There was a backpack full of wires. And something… about a show… Don't remember anything else."

Ren had heard all that he needed. He helped Kyoko prop the man up against the stack of wooden crates, snagging the walkie-talkie that was hanging off the guard's belt.

Agent T requested medical assistance, gave their location, and handed the walkie back to the security officer.

"Goto-san, stay put. Help is on the way," Ren said authoritatively. "Tell the rest of the park's security to be on high alert. You also need to contact the police. Tell them you've been attacked by members of the Rising Sun cult. They're probably going to evacuate the park."

Goto just grunted his understanding, but he was becoming more alert by the minute. Alert enough to slur, "Who are you two, by the way?"

Kyoko stood, seeming to sense the cue to go.

"Oh, no one at all," she replied with a bright smile.

With that, both agents dashed away. Moments later, as Ren was trying to call Lory, they heard behind them the clamor of voices and vehicles as the park's medical staff arrived.

"Explosives?" Agent M asked as they ducked into a convenient hiding spot behind a rack of faux-silk kimonos and boxes of props. She peeked through them to make sure that the medics had found the security guard. "It is their M.O. after all… But I thought the Tokyo police got their stockpiles in the raids."

Ren nodded, "The police might have missed something. If the Rising Sun didn't have explosives before, they seem to have acquired some for today."

"The police might miss something today too." Kyoko scanned the back lot from behind the pallets. "We may need to find them ourselves. The President?"

"His number keeps on going to voicemail," Agent T said with a small sigh, pressing the button to lock his smartphone and pocketing the device. "He might be too busy playing his newest otome game. But considering that even Yashiro is ignoring my calls, it might be that the President black-listed our comms for the day."

Conveniently ignoring President Takarada's unit-wide plot to force the two agents to spend time with each other, Kyoko frowned, deep in thought. "We need some way to blend in – both in the front of the park and in the back. Any ideas?"

"A few…" Agent T mused, turning to the rack of costumes and eyeing a pair of navy blue hakama.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Japanese notes:  
** **moe** – That warm, tense feeling in your bosom when you see an amazing RenxKyoko moment.

 **Otome game** – "maiden game". A genre of dating sim where the bland, generic female protagonist has a harem of hot stereotyped guys who all fall for her.

 **Daimyo** – powerful Japanese feudal lord

 **Orihime and Hikoboshi** – Also known as the legend of the "Weaver girl and the cowherd". This legend is the origin of the Japanese festival of Tanabata and is about star-crossed lovers. They quite literally must cross stars to see each other each year on Tanabata.

 **Oji-san** – literally "uncle" but can be a respectful term for an older man who is a stranger.

 **Hakama** – traditional Japanese trousers. Think the pants worn by the shinigami in Bleach. Fun fact: I went to Anime Expo one year with friends, cosplaying as characters from Bleach. Making hakama is freaking ridiculously difficult. So many pleats!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **Pancakesareabsolutelydelicious** – Thank you so much for the compliments and for taking the time to leave a review! As for my name, it's a pen name! If any one had such a conveniently alliterative name, they'd probably be a cheesy tela-novella character. Lol By the way, your name makes me crave pancakes something fierce!

 **SilverInu93** – Reino wouldn't be Reino if he wasn't up to no good. ;) But no spoilers beyond that! Muhahaha…. Sadly though, Reino will be on the back-burner for a while as Ren and Kyoko cross swords with more of Delta's agents.

 **Shizuhoe** – Yeah, I can see how the Heel Arc dragged on too long. I think it threw me for a loop because I had to remember that all throughout the Heel Arc, Ren is still finishing up Dark Moon and Kyoko is still filming Box R. Ah the tragedy of a monthly manga update… By the time any progress has been made, years have already passed! As for Lory's statement, I feel like Lory already understands that Kyoko's aversion to love is because she's afraid of getting hurt again. Plus, Maria had given him a brief rundown of what happened in the hall only moments before, so Lory knew what was said. :) And hooray! I hope this chapter and the next will fill that fluff-sized hole in your life!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Thanks so much! It's such an encouragement knowing that a fellow author is still keeping up with my writing. As for Yashiro, in the Spy Beat universe, he works off an external server because if he accidental started typing at his work station without his gloves, he can down the entire LME network, stranding agents without support, backup, and intel, destroying priceless documents and evidence, and throwing the entire organization into disarray… I don't know if I'm ever going to find a place to mention it in-story, but that's what Ren was referring to as the "Osaka debacle" in Chapter 3. The day Yashiro forgot his gloves. Lol Thanks for reading and reviewing!

 **Guest** – Haha! Hopefully it's making you sing in a good way! ;) Hope you enjoyed this most recent chapter!

 **MWEH** and **cleocat333** – Where you guys/gals at! Haha, hope you're doing well!


	15. Chapter 15

Hello loyal readers!

More theme park date with Kyoko and Ren! I just had to sneak A Lotus in the Mire into this fic! The Momiji arc right now is really heating up, and I am seriously counting down the days until each update! The 20th is only 17 days away!

As for updates on my fic… I'm sorry to say, but June is going to be the absolute worst month for me. Finishing up my grad school program means that on top of 110 hours in the pediatric ER, I have to prep for my cumulative exam (7 hour-long test), cumulative problem-oriented physical, and master's thesis presentation. Not. Fun.

My goal in June is to continue writing, but to get ahead in terms of chapters I have finished and polished. I've almost come to the end of my nice little buffer of chapters, and I'd like to build it back up again. And if I can't find time to write, then I'll just be back where I started.

So enjoy this chapter! It may be the only one for June (I'm sorry!).

* * *

 **-x-**

 **CH15**

The ronin samurai and graceful kunoichi bowed again to the audience, who had all risen to their feet in a standing ovation. Little girls in purple kunoichi-dresses with black leggings and a black sash, identical to the young woman on stage, called out to their older counterpart. She tucked her long black hair behind one ear and waved happily to them, a broad smile on her face. Similarly, small samurai boys in navy blue hakama waved plastic swords, trying to get the attention of the ronin, who also smiled and waved.

With one final bow, the samurai and ninja slipped through the heavy velvet curtain behind them to the backstage area.

Heaving a long sigh of relief, Kyoko collapsed onto the floor, closing her eyes. She wiped the sweat from her brow with one of her leather wrist gauntlets. How had they gotten themselves into this mess!

A deep voice chuckled above her.

"Momiji-san is surprisingly very good at getting the children involved in the storyline."

Feeling a swell of pride, Kyoko cracked one eye open, about to explain, then she froze. The only reason why she was so good with crowds was because she worked with the Kimagure Unit for the PSIA's Public Relations division. As Bo. To whom Agent T had exposed some of his deepest insecurities and secrets.

"Th-thank you, Shizuma-sama…" Kyoko stuttered, instantly shooting up to sit at attention in _seiza_ stance. Then an annoyed tic crossed her face. "As for Shizuma-sama, your sword work is quite formidable. Shizuma-sama could have gone a little bit easier on this poor servant with the ad lib, you know…"

"But that's what the audience loves!" Ren said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He tightened the obi that held his prop katana in place, and Kyoko watched as his gaze drifted farther backstage. "Now, I do believe we need to be going."

Kyoko followed his line of sight and sprang to her feet. In a moment, she was following her senpai out of the backstage area, tactfully weaving around scenery props and trying not to get her two sheathed _ninjatou_ caught on anything.

Behind them, Kyoko could hear the angry middle-aged stage manager confronting a man in a blue and gray ronin costume and a woman dressed like a purple-clad kunoichi. Clearly, the manager who had mistakenly dragged the two operatives to perform in the show had finally found the original cast members. From his shouts, apparently the two had been messing around and had missed the curtain call.

Emerging from the back, bowing to a couple of other cast members, who congratulated them on their performance, Kyoko and Ren walked briskly toward the park.

Speaking softly, Kyoko murmured, "Luckily, getting kidnapped by that man didn't waste too much time."

"I agree," Ren replied under his breath as he smiled and waved back to some teenaged park-goers. The group stopped to take a picture with the samurai and ninja, before the girls and boys retreated, all individuals blushing. Kyoko knew why the girls were blushing, but had no idea what was wrong with the boys or why they kept looking at her. Maybe Agent T's power of attraction didn't stop at females, she concluded.

Ren continued. "It doesn't appear that the 'show' the cult is targeting was our performance."

"I didn't see anything out of the ordinary," she replied, perplexed. "Did you?"

Shaking his head, Agent T surreptitiously pulled out the park map and studied the timetable listed on the back. Kyoko covered for him by smiling and waving cheerily at the various groups of people who walked by.

"At 1730, there's a puppet show in the kids' area of the park," Agent T said, concealing the map once again. "We should examine the stage and seating arena before it starts."

With that, the two disguised operatives set off at a brisk but unsuspicious walk.

 **-x-**

Fortunately, the stage manager from Hell didn't try to hunt them down again. Apparently the real actors had decided not to disappear again, allowing the last showing of _A Lotus in the_ _Mire_ to go on without its last-minute understudies.

After two puppet shows, a parade, and the last _Lotus_ performance, Kyoko felt truly frustrated. They had found nothing suspicious, nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing to point them toward what these militant cult members could be up to. Eventually, the two partners decided to split up following the last "show" of the day – not quite sure where else to look.

Also, not helping her fear-laced frustration, the park had decided not to evacuate its customers after all. During their searches, Agents M and T had spotted almost three-dozen security guards, clearly a more visible show of force than normal, but the civilians stayed. Apparently some upper-echelon businessman had run the numbers and decided the risk was worth more than dissatisfied customers and bad press.

"Momiji!"

Kyoko's head snapped up to see Ren in his gray kimono top and blue hakama. She couldn't help but think that he looked dashing with his hair pulled up in the top-knot. Well… More dashing than usual for Agent T.

He finished walking quickly over to her, slightly out of breath. Kyoko knew he had been patrolling the backlot while she took care of searching the front of the park.

A light sheen of sweat glazed the edges of his collarbones that peeked through the top of his kimono. A strong undercurrent of… _something_ raced up Kyoko's spine.

Stifling a gasp, she snapped her wide eyes back to her senpai's face. He gave her an odd look, an emotion that she couldn't quite place, before it was gone.

"I'm guessing you didn't find anything either," Ren asked, finally catching his breath.

Kyoko shook her head, eyeing the main courtyard from the side street where they had agreed to rendezvous at 2030. Crowds of guests were milling about the square.

"There was nothing inside the park, T-san," she murmured. Her voice felt heavy with worry and exhaustion.

Before Ren could respond, Kyoko heard a small, excited chorus of "Momiji! Momiji-sama!"

A handful of young girls, some dressed in miniature, mass-produced Momiji the Ninja costumes had spotted her.

Falling easily into character, Kyoko knelt before Ren, who as Shizuma, nodded curtly in her direction. With his go-ahead, Momiji quickly leapt forward, twirling her two drawn ninjatou in a flourish before landing lightly on one foot. Using her forward momentum, she spun in a tight whirl, before sinking down to kneel before the young guests, her swords now sheathed.

"Kamaitachi~!" The group of small fan girls gasped and giggled, clapping their hands with pleasure.

Only after the children's parents had taken the photo op and dragged their offspring away, did Kyoko let her smile droop into a bitter frown.

"Momiji hates that name," she said grudgingly, slumping forward in a pout.

She heard her senpai chuckle, and her heart swelled slightly in her chest. Apparently, he had been satisfied with her acrobatic performance and understanding of Momiji's character motivations. Her assumption was proven correct as she felt a soft pressure on her long-haired black wig.

With a valiant effort, the LoveMe girl squashed the blush that threatened to crest over her cheeks and neck as her… _admired_ and _respected_ and _exaltedly god-like_ yet playboy senpai caressed the top of her head. Finally, he stopped and sighed.

Kyoko glanced up and saw him looking around the courtyard at the mass of people gathered. Men, women, parents, children, teens, and couples all milled around the square, laughing and enjoying.

"It's already 8:30," Ren mused, his voice muddled with confusion. "There aren't any more shows left."

Kyoko frowned. Even the legendary Agent T was baffled. "Maybe Goto-san heard wrongly. Or maybe the police already found them."

As she was speaking, the park's background music faded and an upbeat musical chime sounded over the intercom. Kyoko glanced up at the speaker on the corner of the nearest building.

"Excuse me, honored guests. Excuse me, honored guests," the polite, cutesy lady-voice intoned over the speakers. "In just 20 minutes, the Edo Land firework spectacular, _Buton-kun and Kitsu-chan and the Fire Flower_ , will begin. Please head to Main Square by Tokugawa Dori for the optimal viewing experience. Thank you! … Excuse me, honored guests…"

The chipper recording looped again, but Momiji and Shizuma were no longer there.

 **-x-**

"Are you sure?" Ren asked breathlessly as the two sprinted through the backlot entrance.

Trying to even her breathing as she ran, Kyoko managed, "Yes. I checked the Main Square most thoroughly of all. There were no explosive devices anywhere."

A twinge of self-doubt twisted in her gut before she shook it off. Hundreds, if not _thousands_ of lives depended on her certainty. There hadn't been a single suspicious device or backpack or person inside the square, right up until Ren had appeared again.

Besides, if Kyoko's memory of the People of the Rising Sun was accurate, then their explosives would not be yet at the targeted site. They always prepared them beforehand at a separate location before transporting them to their final destination last-minute for minimal detection and maximal drama.

The only opportunity the LME agents would have would be to intercept the packages before they arrived. And the only place they hadn't searched completely was the back lot.

Ren cast about, spending a precious moment to orient himself among the tin buildings and piles of props before dashing off again. "This way! It's one of the only places I didn't get to search. It was off-limits due to security—"

The two jinked a sharp right around one of the buildings.

Kyoko didn't even have time to scream in fright before she had to leap and tuck into a roll to dodge the oncoming golf cart. Narrowly avoiding decapitation, Kyoko watched the small, motorized cart speed away.

The two men in the cart were wearing black armbands, and as the cart disappeared down the road, Kyoko spied one that had a blood red circle painted on it.

"T-san!" Agent M shrieked, whirling to sprint after the vehicle.

A white blur and the high-pitched, mechanical screech of brakes caught her attention. Agent T sat in the driver's seat of another golf cart. He tossed his prop sword in the backseat and shouted, "Come on! Let's go!"

He started to gun the engine, and Agent M leapt onto the passenger-side running board just before the miniature vehicle shot forward in pursuit.

As Kyoko settled into the passenger's seat, gripping the railing for dear life, she briefly wondered at her senpai's long list of nearly inhuman skills. Even though she was sure that the carts were both from the same manufacturer, Agent T was somehow steadily gaining on the cultists.

She sucked in a deep breath.

"HEY! HEY YOU! STOP RIGHT NOW!" Agent M yelled at the other driver. They were close enough that she kept catching glimpses of a highly suspicious package in the back of their vehicle. Clusters of small paper-wrapped balls ranging from the size of tennis balls to bowling balls were packed into an open box. Traditional Japanese fireworks, Kyoko noted.

But the multicolored wiring and ominous black box attached were most definitely _not_ traditional. Apparently, after the Tokyo police had confiscated their stockpile, the cult members had had to find another source of explosives.

In accordance with people up to no good, the men in the other cart didn't stop. The chase continued. Every time Ren seemed to be catching up, the driver of the lead cart would purposely swerve around groups of park employees and stacks of crates, shaking off his pursuers.

Meanwhile, Kyoko had worked out what direction they were going.

"He's heading toward the park, T-san!" Her heart was hammering a panicky staccato in her chest.

"Probably toward Main Square!" Agent T shouted back, grunting in frustration as he swerved wildly, just barely avoiding a serious collision with the corner of a building.

Kyoko tightened her grip on the side rail, glancing between the cart in front of them and the quickly approaching main park. "The guests won't be able to evacuate in time!"

"I know!" Ren said tersely. He glanced at her. "Grab the wheel."

"What?!"

Blindly trusting him, Kyoko scooted over on the bench and grabbed the steering wheel, somehow sliding her feet under Ren's to floor the gas pedal while he shifted to the passenger's side –all without missing a beat.

She glanced over at her partner. Another panicked exclamation escaped her. "WHAT?!"

Ren had pulled a small-caliber handgun from the waistband of his costume hakama. The firearm looked dwarfed by his large hands.

"How did you smuggle _that_ in here!" A horrified look crossed her face as she tried to sneak another glance.

"No one ever checks the coffee cup," Agent T noted as he quickly checked the gun and clicked off the safety. Kyoko thought she might have sensed a tad bit of sheepishness from him before he leaned out the passenger's side and started firing.

For a brief moment, between zigzagging around a group of terrified restaurant workers on a smoke break and trying to keep the cart steady enough for her partner to take aim, Kyoko wondered if the ammo was rubber or live.

Four carefully aimed shots later, she had her answer. It was real ammo. Two of Ren's bullets struck the rear passenger-side tire, causing the tire to burst. The golf cart lost traction on one side, beginning to waver from side to side. The cart's minor fishtailing rapidly grew more pronounced until the driver completely lost control. Like a bucking bronco, the vehicle whipped to the side one final time, flinging the driver out of his seat. Even more unbalanced than before, the cart teetered precariously on two wheels. With a loud _CRASH_ , the cart collapsed onto the asphalt, round paper-wrapped fireworks rolling out onto the ground and trailing multicolored wires.

Dazed, Kyoko let their cart drift to a halt nearby. On the ground, the other vehicle's wheels were still spinning madly in the air, the rear tire shredded.

Agent T was already vaulting out of their own golf cart. "You check on the guy who got thrown out! I'll check on his passenger."

Still high on adrenaline, Kyoko leapt out of her seat. The driver was lying on his side, facing her. His eyes were closed and blood ran down his forehead and cheek.

She made short work of him – only stopping to check that the man was actually still breathing – before she whipped the long fabric headband from her forehead and used it to securely hog-tie his hands and feet together. He was lucky that the golf carts could only go a maximum of 25 kilometers per hour.

Kyoko had just finished doing a quick pat-down to make sure he was unarmed, when shouts caught her attention.

Off to the side of the toppled cart, Ren was facing off with the other cultist, who had drawn what looked like a hunting knife. A quick glance told Kyoko that Ren's gun lay on the ground; probably knocked away in a scuffle.

With a scream of rage and a curse, the Rising Sun member charged toward Ren, knife swinging toward the agent's head in a cold, metal arc. In that moment, Kyoko felt time freeze. She could have sworn that her heart ceased to beat. All she could think about was Ren. Her partner. Her–

Before she could scream, the world came crashing back.

With graceful ease, Ren side-stepped the first swipe, still keeping his hands up to guard in the Uesugi's mixed martial arts style. Ren's attacker must have been frightened at seeing the skill of his opponent because the next strike was wild and unpredictable. Ren had to quickly step back to dodge, but still, the man's knife slashed into Agent T's upper arm through his costume.

Ren scarcely seemed to notice, but Kyoko, hovering nearby and trying to find an opening to assist, noticed that his glare sharpened.

Finally, Ren struck back. The cultist became quickly overconfident at drawing first blood, lunging forward with the knife. In a quick sidestep pivot, Ren dodged again, this time catching the man's arm in a tight hold. With a deft twist of his wrist, Ren forced the man to drop the knife, which clattered to the ground.

Now panicking, the cultist went for a wild, wind-milling haymaker punch that both Kyoko and Ren saw coming from a mile away. Keeping his hand on the man's knife-less wrist, Ren turned sideways, using his momentum to bring his guarding hand up to knock the punch askew. His opponent's unchecked forward momentum and the solid jerk as Ren pulled downward, brought the man directly into the hard knee Ren shot up to connect with the cultist's jaw.

Yanking the disoriented assailant forward past his body, Ren landed a quick downward elbow-strike to the base of the man's skull. The attacker crumpled into a disorganized heap.

Kyoko watched Ren as silence stretched through the air, broken only by his ragged breaths. Finally, he let out a long sigh of relief and looked up, smiling at her. Unbidden, Kyoko felt the tingling pressure of tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

Then a shadow moved behind him.

"T-san!" Without conscious thought, her hands moved on their own.

Ren whirled around, only to see a third man, rolling on the floor and howling in pain. The man clutched at his right shoulder and hand, where smooth, light gray throwing knives protruded from his flesh. Blood oozed steadily out of the wounds, staining the man's stolen blue security officer jacket under his black armband. His stolen hat lay forgotten on the floor.

"Well, that explains why security had such a hard time finding them," Ren mused, bending over to catch his breath.

"If we had more time, I'd apologize to Goto-san about his jacket," Agent M said as she sheepishly stowed the rest of her throwing daggers. She strode forward to kick away the hunting knife, which the third man had picked up from the ground only moments before.

As he straightened, Ren's gaze felt heavy with questions. Kyoko fidgeted with her hands before explaining in an embarrassed wail, "Moko-san said that a young lady should never leave the house without proper protection!"

Distant shouts snapped Kyoko out of her bashfulness, and she looked up to see half a dozen police officers sprinting toward the two agents. Almost leisurely, Ren turned to pick his small firearm off the asphalt, and turned to Kyoko.

"Shizuma and Momiji, exit stage right," Ren joked with a small grin.

In response, Kyoko reached into her ninja pouch and produced a handful of smoke pellets that Momiji used during the play. Smiling, she threw them at the floor, and the two disappeared into the loud _bang_ and thick, mysterious smoke. Moments later, when the police officers arrived on the scene, they found three injured cult members, but no sign of the enigmatic duo except heady smoke that clung to the night air.

A few minutes later, the intercom in the main park announced that with great regret, the Edo Land fireworks spectacular would be canceled due to unexpectedly rough weather. Everyone in the audience groaned in disappointment and slowly began to disperse.

 **-x-**

Kyoko didn't know how Ren had managed it. It was blackmail, extortion, and coercion all rolled into one. For not the first time, Kyoko wondered if her normally polite and genteel senpai had been a yakuza in a former life.

She tried not to fidget too much because when she did, some body part of hers always managed to knock into one of his, providing more unnecessary physical contact than she could tolerate. However, considering her current position sitting in Tsuruga Ren's lap, fidgeting was extremely difficult to suppress.

She, Mogami Kyoko, at age 17 would die at the top of a ferris wheel by spontaneous combustion.

Without leaning too much, which would allow her back to touch his chest, the agent tried to kink her neck around to look at her partner. He was already staring down at her.

Kyoko whipped her head back around, letting out a small "Eep!" when her arm touched his. Fortunately, Ren had kept his arms to himself, merely resting them on his knees on either side of her. She inwardly cursed the maker of ferris wheel gondolas. Who the hell decided they should be such tiny, claustrophobic boxes of death!

"Mogami-san," Ren's deep voice reverberated from behind her. "Would a real girlfriend react to her boyfriend in such a manner?"

Mentally, Kyoko grumbled to herself. It wasn't her fault that they had spent their entire 'date' chasing down a trio of combustion-happy cult terrorists. So why was she the one getting punished now, as if Tsuruga-san wanted to cram all of their missed coupley moments into a 15-minute ride?

She could sense Ren's 'NG' sigh brewing behind her.

"Well, _dear_ ," Kyoko began sweetly, "Maybe we just started going out, and I don't take kindly to such a rapidly advancing physical relationship."

Her partner's deep chuckle set her grating nerves more at ease – although, Kyoko couldn't quite tell if he was laughing at her expense. Still, the obstinate man didn't let her move.

Worse, he began to absent-mindedly play with her hair. They were back in the Muse's costumes, and Kyoko felt her senpai's long fingers picking at the curls on her short wig.

Before she could react beyond the blush that was working its way up the back of her neck, Kyoko heard Ren say, "Thank you for saving me earlier."

Ducking her head to the side in embarrassment, she hardly noticed when she made contact with his arm again. Kyoko mumbled, "You've saved me millions of times though..."

Her partner merely laughed softly in his deep baritone. Then he paused a moment before replying in a thoughtful voice, "I… I might be counting on you a lot more for this upcoming mission…"

Stiffening, Kyoko felt a warm blush crest over her cheeks. "I-I'll do my best, Tsuruga-san!"

"I'm sure you will. You're always a surprise." Ren's voice took a sly upturn, and in the window across, Kyoko saw that his reflection held a boyish grin. "Like… Ceramic throwing knives sewn into a hidden pouch in your purse?"

Puffing her cheeks out in a pout, Kyoko refused to dignify his (correct) accusation with an answer.

He verbally prodded her again. "You brought knives on a date?"

Whirling her torso around to face him, Kyoko threw the accusation back at him. "You brought a gun!"

There was silence for a moment as both studied the other's expression. Then, they began to laugh.

Outside the gondola, the city lights twinkled from below, a blanket of glittering stars. Closing her eyes, she realized that she felt comfortable and safe. She trusted this man with her life.

Carefully, gingerly, as if scared of being burned, Kyoko shifted to the side and allowed herself to lean back so one of her shoulders was touching his chest. He felt warm. Her heart was beating rapidly and roughly enough to hear it in her ear drums.

However, a large thought pierced through her comfort, chaining her to reality. She could only trust Ren's good intentions, not his actual actions. Just because the man was acting romantically interested in her based on whatever characters or torturous assignments from the President... Yashiro-san and Maria-chan had said it themselves – many women fell for Tsuruga-san's acting.

Kyoko was not so arrogant or foolish to consider herself special to him. Also, according to the conversation Ren had with Bo, there was a girl he was already interested in. Even though he was deceiving the high school girl, he clearly cared deeply for her.

Also, the final nail in the coffin – things like love… romance… They just weren't for plain, boring girls like her.

So, Kyoko rationalized as she willed her stiff body to melt into Ren's solid chest, this was just part of the act. If he could act so convincingly – well, so could she.

She would not be so foolish to mistake a mask for reality. While she pretended on missions, she would resist in her heart of hearts the illusion that he actually cared about her. The locks on the box of her heart were certainly strong enough to withstand that much.

Weren't they?

 **-x-**

Humming in satisfaction, Yukihito leaned back in his chair, stretching arms behind his head. Tilting his neck to the left, then to the right, he brought one latex-gloved hand up to pound at the knots in his upper back. After sixteen straight hours of nothing but coding and bathroom breaks, he wasn't surprised that he felt as exhausted as he did.

A quick glance around the technology workroom indicated that, as he suspected, all his colleagues had turned in for the night. His only company was the flickering, haunting glow of the bank of computer monitors. A high-pitched gurgling echoed through the room, and even though he was alone, Yashiro blushed and pressed a hand against his stomach.

Maybe he would heat up some ramen when he got back to his room. Just once wouldn't hurt, right? After all, the cafeteria was probably closed at… Yashiro checked the clock… 2 a.m.

2 a.m.! Yashiro bolted upright in his chair, a sneaky smirk curling at the edges of his lips. That meant that Ren and Kyoko had probably returned from their date by now! Giggling in a manner unbecoming of a man in his mid-twenties, Yukihito imagined how their day had gone. He wondered if Ren had made any progress.

The tech support paused, considering the persons involved. After a moment, his head fell and hung limply as he sighed.

Probably not. It was Ren after all – hot-shot super spy… and miserable failure at love. And Kyoko – the Number One LoveMe Girl – also a miserable failure at love.

A small, polite cough interrupted his gloomy thoughts. Glancing up, the hacker saw a dark-haired man approaching from the entrance of the room. He carried two steaming mugs of coffee and was offering one to the techie.

"Oh! Matsushima-san! What a surprise," Yashiro said, taking the coffee with a small bow of his head. The small mug warmed his hands through his gloves. "What's keeping _you_ up so early in the morning?"

The mission strategist sighed and sipped his mug. "Just trying to work out the kinks in our Dangerous Mission plan. Woods-san is being quite impractical about some of her costume choices for Mogami-kun. You?"

Giddy to be able to share about his day's work with someone else, Yukihito launched into a lengthy, technologically-complex explanation about his hacking endeavors to bypass the Delta server's higher levels of encryption. He didn't notice Matsushima's eyes glaze over about five minutes in.

As the enthused hacker paused to take in a breath, the strategist leapt at the opportunity.

"Sounds interesting," the middle-aged man said quickly. "Must be a pretty tough system to crack, if it kept even someone like you out for this long."

Embarrassed at the subtle mention of his reputation as a famous hacktivist, Yashiro rubbed the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly. A deep, uncontrollable yawn cut short his embarrassment, and Yashiro covered his open mouth with one hand.

Nodding in understanding, Matsushima grinned. "The only other person busy enough to be up this late is Sawara."

"Still de-toxing that Reino creep?"

"At least our doctor has finally figured out a way to un-poison the bastard."

Before Yashiro could respond, the computer behind him beeped loudly, startling both men. With one hand grabbing at tissues to mop up the coffee that had sloshed onto his workstation, Yukihito quickly typed away with the other on his keyboard, switching to click the mouse a couple times.

Behind him, Matsushima leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse. With an internal chuckle, Yashiro knew that the technologically-challenged strategist would have no idea what was happening on screen.

Several files of corrupted, gibberish text popped open on his screen. After scanning through them quickly, Yashiro leaned back and sighed, defeated. He had celebrated too soon; the unyielding security of the Delta servers continued to best him.

"What's that?" Matsushima interrupted the hacker's pity-party with a pointing finger. Yashiro looked at the small image icon at which Matsushima pointed. The jpeg was in the same folder as the corrupted text files.

His eyebrows shooting up in surprise, Yukihito hurriedly double-clicked on the image. Something had made the journey unscathed after all.

It was a blurry black and white photo, clearly taken from a distance with a telephoto lens. Out of focus tree branches framed the subject from the foreground, depicting a suit-clad man in a parking lot, about to enter an expensive foreign car.

Around his mid-40's, the man was of average build, with his dark hair slicked back, revealing a small widow's peak. His sharp eyes looked down behind wire-rimmed glasses as he checked the screen of his phone. One hand was poised on the open car door, as if the mystery man were checking an email before tucking the phone away in the breast pocket of his suit and getting into his car to drive away.

"Who's that?" Matsushima asked, thoroughly confused.

Equally mystified, Yashiro replied, "I have no idea…"

* * *

 **-x-**

Japanese notes:

ninjatou: the medium-length ninja swords that you see the Momiji auditioners pick out.

Traditional Japanese fireworks are actually gunpowder wrapped in paper balls. Pretty cool technique if you google it!

I've been writing all the measurements and such in metric units (centimeters, etc) so far, because that's the measuring system that Kyoko and Ren would really use in Japan! However, I couldn't avoid phrases like "see it from a mile away".

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG:**

 **Knight Patssier** – Thanks for the praise and encouragement to continue! When I first read, "I'll be blunt", my heart kind of sank because I thought it was going to be a flame review. Lol. I in turn respect short story writers, because I feel like it's a lot easier to be verbose than concise! Just like it's easier to eat a whole dozen of donuts instead of having self-control and eating just one! As for Kanae and Yashiro, I am a big fan as well! Admittedly, not quite sure if that couple will make it into this fiction, seeing as it's going to take a while to bring just our main stars together. But remind me again as we get toward the end… Maybe I'll include something in the epilogue… ;)

 **Shizuhoe** – Haha, are you the type to love drowning in fluff! I do admit that the fluff in these two chapters are like the bread and the action/spy-stuff is like the meat of the sandwich. Hope the second ferris wheel scene scratched your fluff-itch a bit! Thanks for the congrats! Even though it was a fake graduation (I still have many lingering graduation requirements and two months left to go), it still was nice to get the ceremony out of the way!

 **MWEH** – Oh no! Damn you, fanfiction! And yes~! Cannot wait for Kanae to open a can of acting whoop-ass on her competition. I totally agree as well, they'll see if the main actors have any chemistry together, and I can't imagine Nakamura-sensei skipping over a gold-mine of comedy like Kyoko's rapid switch from worst-enemy to best-friend when it comes to Kanae. I think the next chapter is going to have the other Momiji contenders complaining that Kyoko cheated, but have Kimiko starting to plot to get rid of Kyoko (like she did Erika). But then there's also that huge bomb that the President dropped on Ren last chapter… Hmmmm….

 **Aikori Ichijou** – Yay! I made someone laugh! You can't believe what a high compliment that is, since I have always considered myself pretty funny but am pretty darn sure that no one else thinks so. LOL. Sad existence, I know. Thank you so much for continuing to read and review! I know you must be busy with your own series as well. :)

 **Guest** – Haha, hope you're still singing, because I'm loving your responses, even if you couldn't hold a tune if it had handles! ;) Thanks for the encouragement! It really helps me to keep going knowing that people are reading and actually enjoying it!


	16. Chapter 16

Hello loyal readers!

Very, very long time no see! So excited to be back~ Again, my deepest apologies for no posts in June. Taking care of real-world business is definitely not as fun as writing for you all, but 98% of everything for my program is done! (not counting boards and actually getting a job in real life… urgh…)

I'll be posting every weekend in July, but probably will either switch to posting every other week or maybe only once in August. I got quite a bit done while I was on my June "hiatus", and I'm happy to report I have rough drafts for more than 7 chapters ahead! Buuut, I still don't want to stretch my luck with boards. Sorry, future career on the line here. ;)

Today, is the long-awaited unveiling of Spy Beat's most dangerous siblings. And a little omake chapter at the end. Hope you enjoy!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH16**

The young woman sighed and brushed a speck of dirt off her leather jacket. She could feel the heavy weight of their gazes on her back and her legs. Men were eyeing her again. If this were any other hotel, they would be eyeing her in suspicion. But this was Kabukicho, the red light district in Shinjuku. And this was the Kabuki Chou Hotel.

Not known for its luxurious accommodations but more for its secrecy and discretion, the Kabuki Chou had a retro baroque and stylized butterfly theme that may have been acceptable in the 1970's, but now simply smacked of poor interior design. However, the Chou stayed in business due to its loyal customer base. Not every hotel could host yakuza conferences or tip off its smugglers about police raids.

The hotel's bar was no different. Shady but perfect if you wanted to engage in not-quite legal business you didn't want anyone to remember. Like say, if you were an under-aged foreigner who wanted to order a drink without worrying about the bartender carding you.

Inevitably, the Kabuki Chou collected a varied assortment of riff-raff as a result. However, her sleek black leather shorts and jacket, which clung to her curves and left little to the imagination, were not to draw _their_ attention. She dressed how she wanted, and if they happened to stare while her companion was out, then so be it.

They would never dare to stare if he were actually around. Speaking of which…

Playing idly with the delicate metal chain that ran from her ear to her lower lip, the woman stirred her drink and checked her phone. He was late. He was never late, especially if he was keeping her waiting.

Five minutes, she decided. She'd give him five minutes. Then she was going to go looking for him.

There was a shuffle of heavy, masculine footfalls behind her. Speak of the devil… The young woman felt a slow, sultry smile cross her lips.

"You're late," she said, pushing aside her long, pink-tipped platinum-blonde hair as she swiveled around on her bar stool.

Contrary to her expectations, it wasn't him. Her smile morphed into an annoyed grimace. The stranger wore a similar pair of old combat boots as her brother, which was why, to her shame, she had mistaken his steps. But that was where the similarities ended.

Her eyes made quick work of the man – from his distressed designer jeans to his rumpled brand-name t-shirt under a dark, loose-hanging coat that purposefully toed the line between worn-out and fashionable. On top of it all, his unruly mop of dark permed hair fell over a smug smirk.

Essentially, the man was a peacock pretending to be a hawk.

Like hyenas, two more men in similarly pretentious clothing stood up from their seats and sauntered up to the bar, stopping to stand behind their apparent leader.

"Were you waiting for us?" Peacock-man crooned and leaned in uncomfortably close. Setsu could smell the nicotine as much as she could hear it in his voice. "If we had known, we would have come by sooner."

The woman planted a firm hand on the bar's marble countertop and turned herself back around on the stool. As if shooing flies away, she waved her hand in the air over her shoulder. "Go away, little boys. I don't feel like playing right now."

She became even _more_ annoyed when she felt the man roughly catch her wrist mid-air and jerk her back around to look at him. Her wrist and shoulder strained painfully, and she twisted her head to glare.

"Oh, really?" He rasped, his grip tightening on her wrist. "Is it pay to play?"

Setsu hardly noticed his goons chuckle darkly among themselves. A spark passed through her amber eyes as she caught sight of someone behind them.

"No," the young Brit said absently as she allowed herself to be swiveled around to face the trio. "You have to get permission first."

The leader barked a rough laugh. "Hah! From who!"

"From him," she said simply, pointing with her free hand to the almost monstrously tall man who stood like a grim reaper behind her attackers. His long black coat only accentuated his height and menace. Black hair hung haphazardly into his eyes, but Setsu could still see his dark eyes glinting dangerously in the low light.

The two idiots closest to her brother jumped. Clearly, they hadn't even heard him approach. Amateurs.

"Who are you?" Peacock-man growled menacingly, but still let go of Setsu's wrist.

Ignoring the question, Cain easily penetrated through the small group as they stepped back in instinctive fear. Her brother grabbed her recently liberated wrist.

"C'mon, Setsu," Cain intoned in English. He tossed a 10,000 yen note on the bar.

"Nii-san," she whined disapprovingly with a backward glance as her brother pulled her away. "I didn't drink _that_ much."

"It's not for you," her brother noted in his deep monotone. He was proven right when a moment later with a long string of expletives, Peacock-man swung at the mercenary's back with a fist.

Cain ducked under the punch, allowing the attacker to stumble forward into the bar. Before the assailant could regain his balance, Cain had moved in a black blur. A quick kick to the backs of the knees sent the man sprawling face-first into the countertop. However, before his nose could connect with the marble, Cain had caught him roughly by the hair.

Having calmly sauntered away, Setsu sat in one of the lounge chairs, watching her brother work. She smirked slightly when Cain caught his prey's flailing hand in his free one and wrenched it behind the man's body. Only applying some slight pressure and allowing gravity to do most of the work for him, Cain pressed the man's throat into edge of the bar. It all happened in less than three seconds.

Setsu watched Idiot #2 and Idiot #3 as they snapped out of their stupor and with little, frightened noises, began backpedaling before turning around to run. Positioned by the door, Setsu _accidentally_ stuck out one heeled boot, tripping up Idiot #3 who fell to his knees. As he clambered to his feet, Setsu helped him along with a swift pendulum kick to the seat of his pants.

The two goons were soon followed by a swearing Peacock-man, who dashed by and pointedly avoided looking in Setsu's direction.

The blonde was still watching in amusement as the three ran through the lobby and out of the hotel when a pair of worn, black combat boots trudged up beside her chair. Rising to her feet, Setsu quickly dusted off her jacket and shorts and snagged her brother's arm.

As the two walked away, arm in arm, the bartender continued to ignore them and merely sidled up to the bank note on the counter and pocketed it.

 **-x-**

Once outside of the bar area, Kyoko melted into a jabbering wreck. On the inside, of course. Externally, Setsu was nonchalantly complaining that she'd had a better view of the lobby from the bar.

Tucked into a shadowy nook behind a large metal-plated column, Cain loomed above her and leaned in, retorting that he liked this better. He was close enough that she could feel his breath on her ear. Feeling her personal space bubble violently breeched, Kyoko had another reason to internally melt into a jibbering puddle of a human being.

"—trap is already set," Cain was saying when Kyoko finally managed to tune back in. "We just need our prey to spring it."

That was reassuring to hear. Ren had been up in one of the hotel rooms, rigging it with eyes and ears. Only once the LME unit had enough intel would another three teams enter the hotel to join Agent T and Agent M in bringing the two Delta-conspirators in for questioning. Or maybe Lory would let the Vie Ghoul agent go, bugged of course, to lead them back to their enemy's headquarters. This was one of those play-it-by-ear missions. Cain and Setsu were there for on-the-ground emergencies, just in case something went wrong.

In the Yokohama area, Cain Heel was already a well-established black-market mercenary, Ren having built up the fugitive's reputation through carefully selected marks and some fake rumors spread by Lory's friends at Interpol. Setsuka Heel was a new addition to the Cain cover story. But both were perfect covers for a seedy place like the Chou Hotel.

"Maybe the old fogey won't show…" Setsu smiled coyly and leaned back against the column, tucking a leg against it. "Then I'll have you _all_ to myself for the rest of today."

'What was that, Setsu! You creepy brother-complex sibling!' Agent M groaned, appalled. Setsu was writing checks that Kyoko was unwilling and unable to cash.

However, she was saved from Cain's reply when a moment later, a familiar, flabby man with bushy eyebrows sat down in the lobby. His expensive charcoal gray suit made a valiant attempt at hiding his girth, but ultimately failed.

Yamashita Sadao.

Similar to the last time Mio had seen the accountant at his personal estate, his demeanor betrayed someone who had made far too much money far too fast to be entirely responsible with it. Which made sense, considering that once he had found his niche keeping the books for the rich and infamous, the pathetic man had frittered his wealth away on trifles and shallow friends. The current suspicion was that he was embezzling money from his clients to upkeep his lavish lifestyle.

Now all they had to do was wait for the man's Delta contact – most likely a Vie Ghoul assassin. According to a very reluctant Reino, the hotel room was always the same – 474. It took some more threatening from Ren, but Reino spilled that the most likely person to be sent would be Mu, the Vie Ghoul's co-founder. Long, bleached-blonde hair, tall, male.

As Yamashita wasted no time in settling into the leather seat in the lobby, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag, Cain and Setsu continued to surreptitiously watch the rest of the lobby like hungry hawks.

However, after fifteen minutes of waiting, no one approached Yamashita. Kyoko watched the man contemplate pulling out another cigarette before stowing the pack in lieu of his smartphone. A couple of passing thugs eyed the accountant's fancy suit, but eventually decided that the trouble of dealing with the Chou's security was not worth the potential pay-off, and slunk off into the hotel bar instead.

"Setsu. If you stare at another man for so long, I might get jealous."

In other words, stop being so obvious.

Setsu's character pulled at Kyoko to instantly retort to her brother, proclaiming that he was the only one for her, while ratcheting up the physical contact. But she hesitated.

Admittedly, after the amusement park, touching Ren no longer felt like an unspeakable crime against her revered senpai. If that had been the President's ploy – to train Kyoko to become more open to handling physical contact with men, he had at least partially succeeded.

However, in a way that Kyoko could not quite put her finger on, it felt even more dangerous than before.

Once, when Kyoko was in middle school and Sho's parents had been out on business, Sho had snuck home some slasher-horror flick and goaded Kyoko into watching it with him. At one point in the movie, one of the cannon-fodder girls decided to explore the dark, dank basement in the murderer's home. Kyoko wanted to yell at the idiot to stop. It was obvious the girl was waltzing straight toward her doom, inextricably drawn to the dark forces that would surely tear her limb from limb until nothing of her remained.

'Stop! Stop, you fool! Turn back while you still can!'

That was exactly how Kyoko felt now.

"Are we almost done with this job?" Setsu asked in English with a pout. Without a shred of hesitation, she trailed a finger down her brother's chest, letting her nail catch at each of the buttons on the front of his shirt. "It's so tiresome with these Japanese. Why did Nii-san take these jobs anyway?"

"Because my sister likes expensive clothes."

Setsu chuckled and laced her fingers with his. She turned her head so she could whisper in his ear. "Because she wants to look her best for her favorite brother."

Cain's reply cut off as his gaze flicked behind Setsu's head.

Yamashita.

"Did Nii-san mess up my hair?" Setsu casually let go of her brother's hand and reached for her pocket mirror. The young woman took a moment to primp her blonde hair, fixing the pink-tipped strands. Then she shifted her mirror slightly to the side, watching Yamashita's reflection as he rose to greet someone.

The person indeed had long hair, but instead of blonde, it was black and curled, cascading down her back. And the person was undeniably a woman. In fact, from the purple lycra mini-skirt to the flowing black top that shows off an ample portion of her cleavage, it was immediately apparent to Kyoko that, politely speaking, this woman could not be mistaken for anything other than a hooker.

So… Yamashita was there not for business, but for pleasure?

Still grappling with this rapid turn of events, Kyoko heard Cain's boots scuffle behind her. Fluidly, Kyoko slipped back into her role.

"Setsu," Cain was saying. "You look tired. Let's go back to our room."

Chuckling, Setsu twirled a room key around her finger. "If Nii-san wants to spend time alone, he should just say so."

The number engraved on the room key read 473.

 **-x-**

 **OMAKE : **

**-One month ago-**

Uesugi Hiou almost slammed the door shut in Maria's face. That, of course, was purely on instinct, because Maria-chan didn't quite look like Maria-chan wearing a black hooded cloak and carrying an old-fashioned candlestick in one hand. Also, the fact that she had awoken him from sleep at almost midnight wasn't helping his nerves.

"Hiou-kun!" Maria threw the hood back from her face, letting her golden ringlets spring free. "It's just me!"

"I-I knew that."

Maria brushed past the stunned thirteen year-old martial artist and began casually rummaging around in his desk drawers, flinging objects to the ground.

"Wha-!" Shaking the cobwebs from his head, Hiou sprang forward and caught the karate trophy that Maria had flung unceremoniously over her shoulder. "Maria-chan! You crazy girl! Cut it out!"

Ignoring his indignation, Maria simply turned to his trash instead and began ferreting around. As she searched, she was mumbling, "Finally a full moon, but Grandfather and Yashiro-san won't let me have any of their blood. But, they're far too old anyway..."

"H-Huh?" Now more concerned than angry, Hiou began to think it might be better for his health and wellbeing if he left the room… while all of his blood was still _inside_ his body.

However, before he could bolt, Maria uttered a short exclamation of victory. Her hand emerged from the trashcan with a fistful of old, bloodied bandages. Hiou had accidentally cut himself on one of the knives in the armory last week, and Dr. Sawara had sent him back to his room with those wrappings.

Excited, Maria simply stuffed the bloodied cloth into a small plastic baggie she procured from one of her cloak's voluminous black sleeves.

"W-What are you…" The normally fearless martial arts master haltingly tried to gather the courage to form his question. To his shame, puberty decided to crack his voice as he squeaked out, "What do you need _my blood_ for?"

As if realizing for the first time that she had an audience, Maria froze and turned slowly, a sheen of menace in her smile.

"Oh, no reason," the small girl replied as she picked up her candlestick. The flickering light cast eerie shadows across her face as her smile grew into an ominous, evil smirk. "Just the sweetest vengeance… on a certain blondie punk..."

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Japanese Notes:**

Kabukicho – the infamous red light district of Tokyo in Shinjuku

Kabuki Chou Hotel – A made-up hotel in the Kabukicho district; my sad attempt at a play-on words. Kabuki – traditional Japanese drama play. Chou – butterfly (like **Chou** ji from Naruto haha)

Yakuza – Japanese mafia

10,000 yen – the rough equivalent of $100; an very rough way to transfer between yen and dolla dolla billz is to move the decimal point over two spots (for those of you ever interested in visiting Japan)

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG** (Extra long Mailbag today, since so many people showered me with lotsa love! Thanks all for the reviews, faves, and alerts!)

 **Guest with 100** **th** **Review** – Thank you so much, anonymous loyal reader! It feels so amazing reaching this milestone, knowing that something I've written has been entertaining for so many people. Thank you for being my 100th review! Brings a tear to my eye…

 **MWEH** – LOL, your last comment totally predicted Kimiko's reaction this past chapter. Her first response (after her own performance) was to complain. As for the ferris wheel, yup! You're correct – they did ride it twice! It's because the first time, they got interrupted by the cult terrorists lol. (That was Ren's rationale when he coerced Kyoko back on the second time haha) As for the picture off of Delta's server… Muhahaha, who knows~! Only time will tell! Thanks again MWEH!

 **SingingAngel327** – I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKED THE PAST CHAPTER! Haha, joking (and all-caps) aside, thank you so much for the compliment! I'm actually pretty happy with the way most of my fight scenes turn out. Before I started this fic, I ended up reading a bunch of my past fics and figured out that one of my biggest strengths was writing out action scenes. (Biggest weakness: humor) So I'm pretty pleased with this one! More epic fight scenes to come! Thanks for the review!

 **Knight Patssier** – Haha, yeah auto-correct can get kind of wonky. For example, my phone insists on correcting "Kyoko" to "Kyoto" -_- And once, I wrote to some friends, "I'm late, but I'm still coming" and it auto-corrected me to say, "I'm late, but I'm still vomiting." Ughhhh As for Kanae and Yashiro, I feel kind of sad because I think they would work well together, but I feel like Nakamura-sensei is pushing more for Hiou and Kanae. TT_TT Thanks again for the review! And for being "blunt" haha

 **Guest** – Thanks! Haha, I agree with your feelings about hating things ending, just when it's getting good! I'm really addicted to watching this one Youtuber play through Persona 5 right now, and every time I near the end of an episode, I get sad because he only posts every other day. Thanks for another review!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – WOOHOO! Story complete! Congrats x 1 million! It's always such an achievement to finish a story, so cyber-high-five to you! And indeed… What would a spy date be without a few weapons involved? Lol I'm adding your new story to my follow list so I can read it at a later date! (After boards and such) Excited~!

 **Shizuhoe** – Hehehehe…. Surprise! Your question about the Heel sibs has been answered! As for the picture from last chapter… Muhahaha, you shall see~! Yeah, good point about Ren's POV. I'm trying to balance "screen time" between the two of them, but I think this was actually a pretty "Kyoko"-heavy chapter. Mostly because her mindset is the one that is transforming the most in the last scene… and then I already had written the fight sequence from her POV, so… OOPS! Haha if I find a spot, maybe I'll include it in Ren's future musings. Also, thanks for the luck and well-wishes with schooling- almost to the finish line~ Thanks Shizuhoe! Grateful for ya!

 **Guineapigs1** – Thanks so much! It's always a pleasure to get a new reviewer/reader, and it's a special treat to get such a rave review from a fellow author! Thanks again!

 **cleocat333** – You're alive! Just kidding! And I totally get what you mean by life getting in the way of reading. I mean, goodness… If I wasn't in America where "hikikomori" wasn't a thing, I'd be severely tempted to become a shut-in and read manga/watch anime all day… Alas… As for the one-shots, yes! I definitely want to finish this story first before I burn up my time and creative mojo writing something different. We'll see how much motivation I still have after finishing up with this fic. Also, I like that about the KyokoxRen dynamic as well! The fact that Kyoko and Ren challenge each other and in doing so, force the other person to change into a better human being. That, in my opinion, is the mark of a strong and deep relationship. And yes, of course it's a bomb with these two lol! Thanks as always for your thoughts, cleocat333! They're always much appreciated!

* * *

 **THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE LOVE! If you like what you've read so far here, don't forget to leave some love (reviews, faves, and alerts) for the author as well! Hehe**


	17. Chapter 17

Hello loyal readers!

Thank all of you so much who have left reviews, faves, and follows! I forgot to mention but two chapters ago, we passed the 100-review mark! Thank you all so so much! I definitely couldn't have gotten this far without my lovely readers. Let's reach for the 200 mark now, I guess! Haha

As for today, Yamashita gets some… some more than he bargained for, that is! And a new villain is introduced. Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

 **-x-**

 **CH17**

Cain Heel didn't raise an eyebrow when the working girl showed up. Certainly, he had not been expecting this turn of events; however, Cain Heel was not the type of person to sweat the small stuff. His primary goal still had not changed. Obtain the accountant.

Cain Heel was also not the type of person who sneered in contempt as his quite portly target wheezed his way up four flights of stairs after making a very public scene in the lobby about – 'Why are the elevators down? Who the hell put up these signs?' – and such.

Cain Heel also shouldn't have batted an eye when, once inside the room, Yamashita began his rendition of seduction on the young woman who had accompanied him. The accountant was still rasping like a leaky furnace bellows, causing his 'sweet nothings' to come in panted spurts over the listening bug Cain had earlier planted.

However, Tsuruga Ren, sitting in his hotel room's armchair with earbuds plugged into his ears and staring at the video feed from the cameras planted next door, couldn't help but slightly turn away his cell phone screen, so he wouldn't have to completely watch each sordid detail. It also helped, knowing that Yashiro and several of the analysts back at LME HQ were watching the feed as well. It helped because Ren knew he wasn't alone in his uncomfortable misery, and also because he didn't have to watch the feed quite so closely.

And then, there was the other ironic twist in the situation. He was being forced to watch something he had no desire to see, but couldn't watch the one person he desperately wanted to. Against his better judgment, Ren peeked up past the top of his cell phone screen.

But Setsu was observant. She caught his furtive gaze and coquettishly smiled and winked. Then she resumed filing her nails. Her long legs, elongated further with leather stiletto knee-high boots, uncrossed and then crossed again enticingly. Of course she was on the bed. Ren mentally groaned and wrenched his eyes back toward the revolting little melodrama on his screen.

One positive was that while as Setsu, Kyoko couldn't rabbit away from him – like she had been doing ever since their amusement park visit. Back at HQ, every time he stepped into the room, she seemed to make up a paper-thin excuse and scurry out the door. Was this how she felt when _he_ had avoided _her?_ He really ought to apologize to her for that. Her current treatment of him felt awful.

Also, Yashiro wouldn't stop asking Agent T what had happened, leveling exponentially escalating criminal accusations against Ren. On his end, Ren always dodged answering.

One upside was the fact that since Setsu didn't want to interfere with her brother's "work," she didn't have to witness the innocence-incinerating scene unfolding next door.

In his earpiece, Ren heard the hooker speaking, and something about her voice niggled at the back of his mind. He pushed the gut feeling down, trying to focus on her words instead.

"Try these. You might find that you enjoy the results…" On the video, the woman was offering Yamashita something as she draped herself over him.

"Both of them?" The accountant was trying to hide that he was still out of breath from their four-flight climb.

"Mmmhmmmm…" A sultry purr. The woman leaned in and dropped something into Yamashita's open palm.

Agent T's eyes narrowed at the screen, as if that would help him see what the woman had dropped into his target's hand. Drugs? Sexual stimulants?

His intuitive guess was proven correct as Yamashita walked to the bedside table and snapped open the cap of a hotel water bottle. The man on screen made a motion with his hand as if tossing back pills before taking a swig of water.

Wondering what the working girl gave Yamashita, Ren allowed his mind to wander. His gaze started to drift back toward Kyoko – no, Setsu.

Cain was not pleased that Setsu had stolen away from England, but she had been adamant about taking care of her Nii-san.

The elder Heel sibling eyed his sister's skimpy outfit. The silly girl hadn't packed much of anything, apparently. He would have to take her shopping in the morning. Even after acquiring the accountant today, Setsu had announced that she would continue to stay with her brother in Yokohama as long as necessary…

Realization slowly crept up on Ren like a rising tide. He started to hear something abnormal in his earbuds. Gone were the sounds of foreplay. It now sounded like an irregular, staccato gasping. Like a cartoon goldfish stranded out of water.

A quick glance at the time readout on his smartphone – three minutes had passed. As his eyes shifted back to the screen, a feeling of dread settled deep in the agent's gut.

It was obvious that something was very, very wrong.

Yamashita lay alone on the bed, clutching at his naked chest. Pale slabs of adipose and excess skin draped across his body like fleshly baggage. Even on the grainy video, Cain could see that sweat poured from the accountant's brow, and his teeth were clenched together in pain, eyes wide with fear. The man's breaths were coming hard and fast now, shallow and panicked.

Quickly tapping the screen of his phone to switch camera views, Agent T barely caught sight of the hooker as she hastily exited the room. Ren belatedly realized that she wasn't screaming in fear.

Instead, the woman paused at the door before spinning on her heel and blowing Yamashita a kiss.

Something else niggled in the back of Ren's mind, but he didn't have time to think about it, because –

"Ren!" Yashiro yelped over his comm link, breaking radio silence. The analysts had seen the footage too.

A loud _THUD_ echoed through the wall. Ren knew it was Yamashita's body falling to the floor. A door slammed, and high heels swiftly clip-clopped down the hall.

"Nii-san…?" Setsu stood warily to her feet.

"Setsu, go after the girl." Cain growled, hiding the pounding, panicked feeling in his own chest. His black trench coat flapping behind him, Cain flung open the door to their hotel room and immediately turned to the door on the right. Behind him, he heard Setsu sprint from the room and down the hall, in hot pursuit.

His sweaty palm closed on the doorknob. The door resisted the firm tug.

Shit. Locked.

Backing up, Cain raised his foot and delivered a heavy, body-weight carrying frontal kick to the door. The wood of the hotel door creaked temptingly but didn't budge. Casting about himself, he noticed a fire extinguisher in a glass case farther down the hall.

Wrapping his elbow in his thick coat, Cain grunted and with one solid thrust, shattered the glass casing. Quickly, he grabbed the heavy extinguisher and lugged it back to the door.

With two swings, the red metal cylinder battering rammed the door, splintering near the lock. On the third strike, the door flew open on its hinges, lock compromised.

Cain quickly strode into the hotel room, identical to his own, except for the pale, flabby arm slumped over the far side of the duvet. Moving quickly, the mercenary reached Yamashita's body lying face down on the stained carpet. Some maneuvering was required, but Cain managed to shove his two fingers against the man's chubby, sweaty neck.

A moment of quiet dread settled over Ren. Nothing.

But then… a beat. Then… another. Slow, for sure, and weak, but undeniably a soft, thready pulse. But the man wasn't breathing…

Trying to move fast, but hampered by Yamashita's girth, Ren grabbed hold of the man's ankles and pulled the nearly-dead weight into the center of the room, away from the corner.

Immediately, Ren began chest compressions. Fingers interlaced, palms down and lined up mid-sternum, pushing hard and deep at a fast pace. Muffled cracks and pops sounded from Yamashita's chest as Ren's initial compressions strained and cracked the dying man's rib cartilage.

"You're not going to die," he growled to the lifeless body. "Not without my say-so."

 **-x-**

Kyoko's heart hammered a rapid rhythm in her chest as she sprang from the Heel siblings' hotel room like a sprinter off her block. Running as fast as she could in her stiletto boots, Agent M jinked around the corners of the fourth floor hallway. She heard the echoing _clip-clop_ of high heels right before she caught a glimpse of the eye-catching purple skirt disappear around the corner to the stair well.

Round and round, floor after floor, down, down, down, Kyoko chased the sharp echoes of the hooker's heels. Growling in frustration, Kyoko heard the heavy slam of a metal push bar opening a door. She hadn't caught up to the suspect before she reached the ground floor.

Five seconds later, Kyoko burst through the same metal door leading to the Chou's lobby. Five seconds too late.

Still trying to channel Setsu for the sake of appearances, Kyoko's eyes subtly darted around the foyer, searching for the purple skirt.

No one. No one at the bar. No one in the lobby.

Immediately, Kyoko briskly strode for the main entrance, ignoring the appreciative glances she was getting from the hotel's male patrons. She burst out into the street, her eyes rapidly scanning to and fro through the crowds.

But even if there had been a voluptuous, dark-haired woman in a purple skirt, she had dissolved into the crowds of pleasure-seekers that flooded the streets of Kabukicho. Disappeared without a trace.

She felt inclined to snap a string of obscenities, but she was more Kyoko than Setsu at the moment, and by habit, she refrained. Biting her lip in frustration sufficed.

"Kyoko-chan," her comm link squawked to life in her ear. Yashiro's voice sounded tight with worry, and Kyoko could hear his frantic typing. She thought she could also make out the President shouting indistinctly in the background. "We lost sight of the woman on camera after the stairs. But Ren needs help. Can you grab the lobby's AED before you head up?"

Not bothering to verbally reply, Setsu swiveled on her heel and walked quickly back into the hotel. Skewering passersby with a steely glare, she quickly made her way over to the lobby's bathrooms and swiped the boxed defibrillator from the wall. Setsu almost ran over a sunglasses-wearing brunette who had been exiting the bathroom while fiddling with her purse, but the Brit didn't bother to apologize.

Seeing that the signage declaring the elevators under construction had been removed, Setsu jabbed the button and rode the elevator up to the fourth floor.

 **-x-**

Sweat slicked down Ren's forehead as he worked. The dizzying, panicky feeling from before was slowly being replaced by a heavy, joint-stiffening, gut-wrenching sense of dread.

Meanwhile, Yashiro was talking quickly in Ren's ear. "Ren, covert medic is enroute. Their ETA is 5 minutes. You need to get a defibrillator. That's the only way we're bringing him back."

"I know," Ren grunted. He had sent Mogami-san after the woman suspect. Was that a mistake? Maybe Ren should have sent her for an AED. Maybe the LME unit would lose their only lead on Delta because Ren had made the wrong judgment call… Maybe Ren had lost his only lead to finding the man responsible for Rick's murder… Maybe…

"Nii-san," an irked voice sounded from the doorway. Heels of stiletto boots clomped across the floor.

"Setsu, get the–"

A tinny, automated female voice politely interrupted him, "Attach the pads to the AED machine."

Working faster than the machine could spew out directions, Setsu hooked up the defibrillator. With an expression of distaste, she quickly used the bed sheet to wipe the sweat off Yamashita's chest, then slapped the pads on the man's pale, flabby torso.

"Analyzing rhythm," the machine cued. "Please remove your hands."

Cain stopped his compressions and leaned back, eyeing Setsu who handled the whole situation with her characteristic indifference. Albeit a minor tic of annoyance that crossed her brow.

"She got away," Cain read in his sister's expression.

Her scowl deepened minutely in response.

"Shock advised," the AED intoned politely. "Please stay clear."

"Clear," Cain grunted and pressed the button with the lightning bolt.

 **-x-**

"It's done," she said evenly into the cellphone. The brunette woman in the black pantsuit and large sunglasses shifted the bucket purse higher on her shoulder and continued to walk through Shinjuku station. Her high heels clip-clopped briskly on the tile floor.

The voice on the other end of the line hummed in appreciation. "Good work."

"You owe me, you know?" She said with mild petulance. "That's got to be _the_ worst assignment you've ever given me."

She could almost picture her boss's apologetic smile from across the line. "Sorry. I'll add on a bonus this time around."

This time, it was _her_ turn to smile. Thoughts turned from that flabby greaseball gasping for air to the cute Louis Vuitton purse she had been eyeing at the mall the other day.

Delta continued talking, "Just remember. It's all for—"

"The greater good," she finished for him, trying not to sound too weary. "Hai, hai…"

Despite her distaste for tonight's assignment, Kappa was grateful to Delta for giving her a chance to utilize her specific set of skills. After all, the market was scarce. Covert seduction and assassination was such a niche field. His strange philosophy was none of her concern.

Suddenly remembering the strange blonde girl in black leather, Kappa said, "Also, don't know if you saw, but you've got some interesting characters on your tail, Delta."

"Mmm, I know," her boss mused. "Don't worry about them."

"Well, just so you know."

Reaching track 9, the brunette descended the stairs. Her train was on the tracks.

"You know how to get in contact with me if you need me," Kappa replied. "Ugh. I need to go home and take a scalding hot shower to disinfect."

"Mmm," Delta replied evenly.

"Oh, and Delta-san?"

"Yes."

"Next time, give me a nice, young, hot target. Ne?"

With that parting line, the brunette snapped the cheap flip-phone closed in one hand, smoothly removed the battery, and tossed both in the trashcan at the bottom of the stairs. She then entered the last train car, right before the doors slid shut. The train glided smoothly out of the station and into the humid Tokyo night.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Notes:**

AED – Automated External Defibrillator; found in most public places (train stations, bathrooms in malls and hotels, etc), used to deliver an electric shock to reset the rhythm of someone having a heart attack. Fun medical tip of the day: Though many medical TV shows and movies show doctors "shocking" patients who are flat-lining, in real life, a "flat line" is one cardiac rhythm that is considered "unshockable".

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **JeremyVD** – Hey! Long time no see! Sadly, we won't be seeing the full extent of Maria's voodoo shenanigans, as it was only a short "omake" chapter. I only added it last minute since I wanted to give a little bit of light-hearted background to a relevant plot point that will be coming up. As for Agent M  & T, though they aren't going to be bothered by a certain hotel mogul's heir, they must suffer the fate of all main characters: they must live exciting lives. AKA: nothing ever goes quite as planned. Haha Thanks as always JeremyVD!

 **MWEH –** Indeed, Kyoko has a knack for deflecting her feelings for Ren almost to the point of being brilliant. Though, upon second thought, a lot of the hints she gives to people about her true feelings for Ren can often be excused as, "This girl is just strange." She can act as erratically as she wants, and few people think it strange. xD I'm glad that I can help with your Skip Beat void! I'm pretty darn bummed though that there's not going to be a manga update this month. I know the mangaka lifestyle is no joke (very stressful), but still… I wish we could get more Skip Beat :( Thanks for the review! Hopefully as things get more intense, the impact will be bigger because of the build-up!

 **Shizuhoe** \- Sadly, we won't be seeing the full extent of Maria's voodoo shenanigans, since it was only an omake chapter. But to answer your question, Maria needed younger blood because it will make her jinx stick better. Hiou is closer in age to Sho than any of the other males she's close to. (Ren is closer in age, but Maria-chan would never spill a drop of Ren's precious blood, right?) As for Kyoko, she ordered the drink, but only pretended to drink it, since she expected Ren to be back sooner rather than later. As for the intensity of this chapter, I do admit that this is only the beginning of the next story arc. Over time, it should get more exciting (hopefully today was more intense!). As for Setsu, Lory created her for the same reason as in the manga, since… Is Ren more in control of Kuon…? Hehehe… We shall see~

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Thanks for the praise~! And yup! I've only finished a few stories on this site, and this one is definitely going to be my longest, so I envy you! Haha Congrats to your sisters-in-law! Med school is no joke, and residency is even worse (I'm a PA student, which is a little different and doesn't require residency). I run into my fair share of residents, and I'm pretty sure they all have a crazy amount of sleep debt and have coffee instead of blood flowing through their veins. Haha Thanks for the well wishes!

 **Knight Patisser** – Woohoo! It's always nice hearing that I have such an eager reader! Also, if newer chapters are correct, it might be Yashiro that turns out to be Kyoko's manager… But I am also hoping for a sexy female manager for Kyoko who's more than a match for Yashiro as well! ;)

 **SingingAngel327** – Thanks for the review! Sadly, Maria's only appearance for now is in this short omake chapter. However, the effects of her curse will be soon revealed. Haha Hope to keep you excited about the next chapter!


	18. Chapter 18

Hello loyal readers,

Thank you so much for bearing with me! Here's this week's chapter! A friendly face makes a quick return, revealing how the assassination attempt went down, and we get a little time with the Heel sibs. Also, I decided it would make more sense for the story if Cain Heel was a "bounty hunter" instead of a "mercenary". Ignore all the references in the previous chapters!

Thank all of you who have been reviewing, favoriting, and "alert"-ing – I'm really grateful for the support! If any of you loyal readers have the time, I'd love to read your thoughts, predictions, and encouragements in the reviews! Getting all of your support really keeps me motivated! So thanks in advance~!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH18**

 _ **-Tokyo Yamate Medical Center-**_

The young woman in the white nurse's scrubs walked briskly down the hall of the hospital, carrying a small metal tray with a capped plastic syringe on it. Her nametag read: Isao Hanako. Her shoulder-length black hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail at the nape of her neck. She waved her badge in front of the electronic sensor on the wall and waited patiently for the heavy doors to swing open on automatic hinges before entering the ICU.

None of the other nurses gave her a second glance. It was less her uniform and more her confidant air that kept the questions away. These nurses were busy and didn't have the time to waste interrogating someone who might have just been a floater nurse from an outside agency. After all, there were still nursing shortages, and thus, always new faces around.

However, if the nurses had taken the time to note her name and badge number, taken the information downstairs to the administration office, and convinced the security officer to run a hospital-wide database search for this particular nurse, they would have found that the ICU nurse named Isao Hanako had actually died in 1997.

Reaching her destination, the woman pretending to be Isao Hanako paused at the door to a patient room. Then she smoothly turned around and busied herself at the hallway sink, washing her hands. Immediately, the door slid open and shut behind her. She listened as the nurse exiting the room muttered something that sounded like, "Gross!" before stalking down the hall. Hanako listened as the woman found a colleague, and the two began gossiping in hushed tones.

As soon as the two nurses turned the corner, Hanako dried her hands off and casually entered the patient room. Sliding the door shut behind her, she locked it, grasping the tray with the syringe in her other hand.

The soft blipping of a cardiac monitor and the sharp scent of disinfectant greeted her as she slowly turned. A large man groggily rolled over in bed to watch her. By his bedside, pendulous fluid-filled bags hung on tall metal poles. The bags were attached to IV tubing that snaked wildly toward the bed, hooking into the man's inner elbows and the backs of his hands.

The young woman's eyes took in all the details. So this was how someone looked two days after they'd had coronary artery bypass surgery. Sleepy, pale, weak. She tucked that knowledge away, just in case she would need to use it in a future role.

"Oh, another nurse?" Yamashita chuckled, his voice raspy with fatigue. "Did my little antics scare the other one away?"

Ew… This was definitely going in her poison notebook as soon as she got back to HQ.

Trying to remain professional, the Hanako impersonator merely set her tray on the bedside table and met the man's gaze coolly.

"Yamashita Sadao, accountant and bookkeeper to the famous, infamous, and illegal. Clearly, you've bitten off more than you can chew with Delta. Tell me what you know about your client."

The shock on Yamashita's pudgy face, in her mind, was hilarious. But it was quickly replaced by a ruddy, grim expression. "So, you're not a nurse. Not the cops either, I'm guessing. You're too cute. PSIA?"

Amamiya Chiori bit back her sarcastic, _Wow. You must be a genius!_ Instead she replied, exasperated, "Just tell me about Delta. What's he after? What was he using his money for? What's his next move?"

"You don't scare _me_ , little girl," the accountant slurred through a morphine-induced haze. "I don't even need my lawyer to deal with you. Now, get out of my room."

Chiori smoothed back the thunderous look that threatened to cross her face. Instead, she took a step away from the bedside.

"You know… All these tubes and machines look so important…" She said unconcerned, as she swept a hand across the plastic IV lines. "You never quite know which one might just be keeping you alive…"

Suddenly, her hand shot forward, and she ripped one of the IV catheters out of his arm. The flimsy paper tape holding it in place provided hardly any resistance. It was just his morphine drip, but Yamashita didn't need to know that.

"Oops!" Chiori innocently batted her eyelashes.

"You crazy –!" Yamashita thrashed away from her on the bed, horrified. Instantly, he grimaced in pain as he moved his still-raw surgical wound. "What the hell do you think you're doing! I'll sue!"

"I wouldn't be so loud if I were you," Agent A mused, her slender fingers reaching to take the syringe from the metal tray. She deftly popped the plastic cap off the syringe's needle and squirted a thin arc of clear liquid into the air.

Theatrics – it was all about the theatrics…

Making a show of it, she approached the IV bag attached to one of his intact lines. But she also made sure that the label on the syringe reading, "Normal Saline" was hidden from view.

"Now talk."

Yamashita bit back a weak scream, his arm trying and failing to push his girth away from Chiori and the mystery liquid in the syringe. Chiori could almost see the options churning through his brain behind his beady black eyes.

Fight? Too weak. Run? Too weak – and might have another heart attack. Lie? Possible, but unlikely to succeed if the PSIA was good enough to corner him like this. Tell the truth?

Clearly calculating the risk of his treachery, Yamashita eventually slumped back, looking up at Chiori with pleading eyes.

"I can't tell you anything. Delta would kill me," the grown man nearly whined. "And you can't promise me protection from someone like _him_."

"Protect you…" The nurse imposter chuckled wickedly to herself. "Oh my goodness. This fool still thinks his heart attack was an accident."

"Wha-?"

"Look at you: your teeth suggest at least a 30 year history of tobacco smoking. The size of your ass says you like to sit more than anything. And you eat more than you sit. Your blood is probably the consistency of lard. You attempted to initiate extreme cardiovascular exercise after being forced to climb four flights of stairs. Also, you were idiotic enough to take a double dose of Viagra on top of your daily nitroglycerin pill in the morning..."

Yamashita looked at her blankly. In awe or shock, she could not tell. Idiot.

Rolling her eyes to the heavens, Chiori tapped her foot impatiently against the floor.

"Someone, probably your former employer, just tried to kill you. With a method that was meant to be unsuspicious and untraceable. I can just imagine the newspaper headline, can't you? 'Man found dead of heart attack after tragic medication mix-up,'" Agent A said dramatically. She raised an eyebrow at Yamashita. "Clearly, you're not _going to_ need protection. You _already_ need protection, even if you don't tell us anything."

The accountant suddenly looked a pale, nauseous green.

"He told me that instead of meeting with that creepy assassin group, he was going to send me a reward…" Yamashita trailed off.

"How'd that work out for you?"

Yamashita's eyes flicked nervously around the hospital room. The young woman watched him think; he was close to cracking.

Perfect.

With a theatrical sigh, she lowered the syringe from his IV bag. "The math is simple enough, especially for an accountant like you, Yamashita-san. You give us what we need to know, and we'll keep you alive."

Failing at the valiant attempt to steady his quavering voice, Yamashita insisted, "Delta is smart. A couple of body guards isn't going to stop him or the Vie Ghoul."

"You underestimate us," Chiori gave the man her most winning smile. Time to make the sale.

"Your hospital records have been changed; this room is for a 58 year-old salaryman with complications due to gallstones. No Yamashita Sadao was ever admitted here. According to records, security footage, and eyewitness accounts, Yamashita Sadao passed away tragically from a heart attack on the fourth floor of the Kabuki Chou Hotel two days ago. You haven't noticed but two of your doctors and three of your nurses are our agents. The patients in the room to your right and left are also ours."

Yamashita was shocked speechless again. Agent A wanted to shake her head and roll her eyes. 'What? You think we're a bunch of amateurs?' was what she _wanted_ to say.

Instead, Chiori smiled again and said, "Like I said. You underestimate us. Now. What was Delta's last big transaction?"

 **-x-**

 _ **-Yokohama-**_

Setsu pouted as Cain emerged from the store, shopping bags in both hands. He had bought her far too many clothes. It was that damned deadly puppy dog pout.

"Nii-san is so manipulative," the blonde griped, arms folded over her chest as she followed him down the sidewalk. The chilled sea breeze blew in from the bay and tousled her hair. Setsu flipped it out of her face with an irritated toss of her head.

"Heh," the bounty hunter replied over his shoulder with the scarcest hints of a smirk at her.

Ignoring passersby who were staring openly at the oddly dressed duo, Setsu merely stalked forward and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "Baka Nii-san… You just do that because you know I'll always fall for you."

Cain Heel, uncharacteristically, almost stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk.

Unaware of her brother's near slip-up, Setsuka uttered another harrumph and strode onward down Motomachi Street. Sure, this was one of the most renowned shopping areas in the greater Toyko area – which Setsu loved – and sure, she got to spend quality time with her brother – which Setsu also loved – but that receipt had far too many zeroes on it!

She had picked out so many clothing items just to bother her brother, but that had backfired in the end when he just grabbed the armful of clothing she had presented and brought it straight to the cash register! Setsu swore that she could see little yen signs in the store employee's eyes.

After all, Setsu and Cain were only staying in Yokohama for less than a week before heading back to the UK. How many clothes did her careless older brother have to buy her anyway?

A warm hand brushed hers, and unbidden, Setsu felt her ire melt around the edges. She glanced up to see that Cain had slung both shopping bags over his shoulder and was reaching for her hand with his free one.

"Silly, Nii-san." Instantly placated, Setsu smiled smoothly as she felt his large hand close around hers.

Inside, Kyoko was attempting for the _nth_ time over the past two days to invoke a bolt of lightning to descend from the heavens and fry her to a crisp. Maybe the lightning could also strike the President for forcing them to remain undercover for the week after the Yamashita incident – 'Just in case.'

Unfortunately, the lightning didn't come in time as her partner decided to squeeze her hand and then bring it up to his lips to kiss the back.

' _Tsuruga-san, maybe toward me… he feels…_ is what some other girl might say,' Kyoko thought, wryly. 'If it wasn't me that Tsuruga-san was doing these things to, then it would have definitely ended up in tragedy for some poor, naïve maiden.'

Trying to hide her wavering Setsu-mask, Kyoko stopped at a shop window to peruse the wares. Cain stopped behind her, very much inside the bounds of her personal space.

'It's a good thing I've guarded my heart against his unfortunate tendency to create misunderstandings. No wonder all of his other partners were so misled…'

 _DING._

An internal chime from their comm link earpieces caused the duo to shoot a knowing glance at each other. If it were any other couple, they would have been startled by the sudden auditory intrusion. But Cain and Setsu Heel didn't _do_ startled. Instead, the siblings continued calmly hand-in-hand down the shopping district's sidewalk.

Yashiro's tenor sounded in Kyoko's ear. "Ren, Kyoko-chan. New update. Is this a good time?"

As Setsu, she glanced up at her brother. His eyes were fixed firmly ahead as they continued walking.

"Nii-san," Setsu asked slyly, wrapping a hand around his upper arm. "What do you want to eat for lunch when we get back to the apartment?"

Cain merely grunted, "Setsu, we still have a bit of a walk to get back to the car."

Picking up on the cues, Yashiro replied, "Maybe I should wait until you are both somewhere private?"

"But I guess lunch can't wait," Cain intoned unhappily.

"That's right, Nii-san," Setsu lightly chided. "You can't get nutrition from just cigarettes and booze. We should get groceries now."

Yashiro spoke up again, "Are you sure?"

"Mmm," her brother responded, clearly uninterested at the thought of food.

"Ah, understood," their tech support replied, catching their implications. "Four things to report."

Setsu trailed off, hand still wrapped around her brother's arm.

"First, still no information on the female suspect from the Yamashita incident. We re-watched the lobby footage and saw her disappear into the bathroom, but she never came out. Also, apparently, per the hotel's maintenance logs, the elevators were not supposed to be out of order that day. The signs were posted in the morning by one of the employees who received a fake work order."

Kyoko's mind continued to race. She had gone near the bathroom to grab the defibrillator that day, but hadn't seen anyone who looked remotely like the hooker she had chased into the lobby. Also, apparently this new suspect had planned the whole elevator incident to further tax Yamashita's heart.

After the woman had given him the Viagra, it would have just looked as if the accountant had had an accidental prescription medication overdose while engaging in intercourse with a prostitute. And this overdose would have lead to a heart attack.

Untraceable. Innocuous. Unsuspicious. The perfect assassination.

An uncomfortable knot of worry had worked its way into Kyoko's gut. Was it the Vie Ghoul? But Reino had never mentioned any women in his group… Was this a new threat?

Yashiro was continuing his report. "Secondly, we ran the photo I obtained from Delta's server through facial recognition software. It was slow going because the picture is such poor quality. But judging on the background, it was likely in front of the National Diet Building in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Do either of you know Councilor Toudou Shoichi?"

"Hmm, Nii-san, do we have any more beer for you at home? I don't think we do."

"No, we don't Setsu."

"Toudou is… I'm sorry Kyoko-chan. He works with your mother. They're in the same political party and are often seen in each other's company."

Kyoko felt her Setsu mask almost slip clean off her face. The knot of worry instantly transformed into a sudden, gravid weight that plummeted straight to the bottom of her gut.

What was her mother doing working with someone who had been found on Delta's server? Was this Toudou guy Delta's accomplice? A victim? Was there a connection between Mogami Saena and Delta?

"It gets worse…" Yashiro trailed off, uncertain. "Are you sure you want to continue now?"

"Setsu," Cain's strong, steady baritone cleared Kyoko's mind. She felt a warm pressure over her hand. Kyoko didn't know when it had happened, but they had stopped walking. Closing her eyes, she breathed in a shuddering breath, and when she exhaled, she was Setsu again. The younger Heel sibling's sharp amber eyes glanced up coolly at Cain.

"Setsu," her brother repeated as his concerned brown eyes bore deeply into hers. "We don't have to go to the store today if you don't feel well."

Kyoko couldn't quite stop the unease that slipped into the smile she had meant to be reassuring. "Silly Nii-san. We have to go to the store regardless."

Cain nodded and started walking again.

Yashiro breathed out a reluctant sigh. "If you insist… The third thing is that, Kyoko-chan, your mother today announced her intentions to run for the office of Prime Minister against PM Ogata in two months."

Kyoko closed her eyes, feeling Ren's black leather glove close over her hand again, protectively. She couldn't stop her hand from squeezing his back on reflex. Desperate, like a falling climber clinging to a lifeline.

'Keep walking. One foot in front of the other. Setsu's face. Setsu's face.'

"And finally," Yukihito continued, warily. "Amamiya-san has gotten back to us about Yamashita. It turns out that the last transaction Delta placed was a withdrawal. 200 million yen… for… for the assassination of Fuwa Shotaro."

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Notes**

Toudou's first name – At first I was going to make up a name for Toudou, since even the Skip Beat wiki doesn't list a first name for him; however only two days ago I saw a translated omake chapter in which Nakamura-sensei actually revealed that his first name is Sho! (Which is how Kyoko remembered his name in order to contact him all those years later, due to her childhood Sho obsession) But… I just couldn't go along with that, so I ended up making up an _elongated_ version of Toudou's first name instead.

Normal Saline – Did you know that if you give someone regular drinking water in their IV line, you could kill them? The body is slightly "salty," so any intravenous fluids need to be slightly salty as well or else the body's cells will basically explode due to osmolarity differences (or some other science-y stuff).

Baka – "dummy"

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **Knight Patisser** – Oh no! Haha, I didn't mean to give off the impression that the woman at the end of Ch17 was actually Delta. She was just talking to him on the phone. ;) As for fluffy scenes, we might have a few moments here and there, but the major fluff is on hold for a little bit. Also, soup can definitely burn… I've definitely ruined more than one pot in college in this manner. Hahaha

 **MWEH** – HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hope you had a good one! Despite, yknow, not having a Skip Beat chapter this month… I don't know about you, but I'm seriously going through withdrawals D: As for the villain for this arc, surprise! Haha, I'm glad that I'm able to write a good twist here and there. But apparently I give away huge plot points in the A/N's on accident… WHOOPS! Thanks as always, MWEH!

 **Shizuhoe** – Hmmm indeed…. Who is Kappa? I have laid a trail of breadcrumbs in a couple chapters leading up to this one, but maybe they will only become apparent after her big reveal. ;) Hehe, you have good intuition! As for how Kappa escaped Setsu, she did have a big head start going downstairs, then she pulled a bait and switch on Kyoko at the bathrooms. Can you see the moment where Setsu brushes right past her in Ch17? ;) Glad you enjoyed the chapter and thanks as always for the encouragement!

 **Guest** – Thank you so much! It's always exciting to hear that people are excited for my story and don't absolutely hate the way I'm writing the characters/scenarios haha. Thank you for your very encouraging review! It's like coffee to my fatigued soul! :3

* * *

 **Thanks again for all of your support! And again, if you haven't added an alert or a fave or left a review, every little bit helps! Thank you loyal readers all so, so much!**


	19. Chapter 19

Hello loyal readers,

SURPRISE! I said I wasn't going to post for all of August, but here I am! By the time many of you read this, I will be either A) right about to go into my boards exam, B) taking my boards, or C) COMPLETELY DONE AND FREE, FREE, OH SO FREE!

Today, we get to see a little bit of Maria's handy-work and a little bit of what Ren had been up to in Yokohama pre-Setsu gets revealed! And even bigger surprise... Delta was watching after all.

 **Happy reading, and don't forget to leave a fave, a follow, or a review at the end! I REALLY appreciate the motivation!**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH19**

For the fourth time that day, Fuwa Sho found himself in the restroom of a random café changing his clothes. Cursing, he unceremoniously shucked off his sopping wet pants and suit jacket. How a mere taxicab could throw up such a massive tsunami of disgusting street water was beyond him. Actually, this whole month was beyond his understanding.

Ever since his traumatizing trip to the LME unit's HQ last month, Sho had been running into a seemingly never-ending string of bad luck. His father was constantly on his case, angry because Sho was late to this or that meeting.

Well, it wasn't Sho's fault that every time he walked down the street, he tripped and face-planted into mud puddles or turned corners and ran into kids holding ice cream cones or got dive-bombed by shitting birds! His shoelaces broke; blackouts mysteriously stranded him in elevators; his car was always out for repairs; even all his pens seemed to die or explode in his pocket!

Grumbling to himself, Sho caught a glance of himself in the mirror.

Shit, he looked tired. He paused to run a heavy hand over his face. It wasn't just the bad luck… It was Kyoko.

He hadn't seen her in a month, but he couldn't seem to stop himself from thinking about her. Wondering if she was alright. Wondering if she had broken her promise to him…

" _Ufufu, you're so much better than that stupid Sho, Tsuruga-san." Kyoko giggled as she caressed the agent's jaw. "You're my Prince Charming now, right?"_

"Dammit!" Sho swore under his breath. Shaking his head violently to clear his wild imaginings, the blonde picked up the clean pants Shoko had given him, jamming in one leg and then the other.

And Shoko was wrong. He wasn't jealous; he was just… embarrassed! That's it. Embarrassed, for sure, of his childhood friend who was a silly girl with only love on the brain!

Sho finished dressing quickly then reached for his phone, which was lying on the sink counter. The sink must have left a thin sheen of water on the phone's casing, because as Sho grasped it, he felt it slip out of his fingers. Fumbling with it in the air merely launched it up and, to his horror, directly down into the toilet bowl.

The café's patrons sitting just outside the restroom door all winced as they heard the lengthy string of expletives from within the bathroom. The two who were standing in line to use the facilities slowly, slowly backed away and slunk back to their seats.

 **-x-**

When Sho finally emerged from the restroom, he felt even wearier than when he had entered. He ignored the stares of the other customers as he staggered toward the front door where Shoko waited just outside.

He was almost to the front when he bumped into the girl.

From the back of his mind, as he watched her topple backward, her latte sloshing in slow-motion in her mug, he was confused. He could have sworn that prior to impact, he had moved to the side enough to avoid hitting her altogether. But then instinct overrode reason, and Sho reached forward and grabbed her arm. His bag of wet clothes thumped to the floor, and Sho quickly found himself with an armful of young woman.

She blinked at him, her eyes wide in surprise that he had caught her. "E-Excuse me…"

"Sorry," Sho replied gruffly as he relaxed and let her arm go. He was reaching down to gather his bag, when he felt a gentle hand on his arm.

"I'm sorry, but I think I got some coffee on your shirt," her soft voice said. Gentle hands came up to tug at the sleeve of his dress-shirt. A light brown stain was seeping into his cuff.

Biting back a slew of curses, Sho took a bracing breath in and out. He mustered his most sultry, woman-slayer smile and said, "It's fine, miss. I'm just glad you're ok."

That's when he noticed her long black hair and warm, golden-amber eyes. With her wide, innocent face and extraordinarily polite mannerisms, this stranger looked like the spitting image of Kyoko… Pre-spy version.

She was even bowing while apologizing and trying to clean off the sleeve of his shirt with her handkerchief at the same time.

Eventually, she looked up at him, aghast. "I don't think it's coming out. I'm so sorry, Mr. …"

In the expectant pause that followed, Sho nearly tripped over his own tongue to fill in, "Sh- I mean, Fuwa Shotaro."

Shit. Why'd he give his uncool _full_ name?

The girl didn't seem to mind and she gave him a radiant smile and bowed politely at the waist.

"You have my deepest apologies, Sho-kun," she said as she straightened. "My name is Morishige Kanako. I really do insist on paying for your dry cleaning."

Sho only felt a small twinge of discomfort in the back of his mind at the girl's forwardness. 'Sho-kun?' But his discomfort melted away as he found himself distracted by the strange familiarity of her amber gaze. In the end, he could only splutter out with uncharacteristic inelegance, "But I was the one who bumped into _you_!"

Shaking her head, Kanako was scribbling onto a small piece of notebook paper she had procured from her pocket.

"No, you saved me," she insisted with a gentle smile. Her words, mingled with Kyoko's old appearance, only muddled Sho's head further.

"Here," she proffered the paper. "My phone number! The least I can do is treat you to coffee or something."

Head awhirl, all Sho could do was mutely accept the scribbled note. He knew he should be saying something cool and swoon-worthy, like asking her out on a date. But as he was opening his mouth, the door to the café burst open.

"Sho!" Shoko nearly leapt into the coffee shop. Sho blinked at her. Not only was it unlike Shoko to be disruptive, but she also seemed to have a particularly panicked air about her.

"Oh, Shoko-san," he said, burying his surprise. "Do you have another clean shirt? I got coffee—"

"We don't have time for that right now." Ignoring her charge, Shoko grabbed his elbow and pulled him toward the door.

"What? Hey! Shoko-san!"

"Sho-kun!" The young woman called after him and waved cheerily. "Don't forget to call!"

Sho barely had time to wave back before Shoko slammed the café door shut behind them. Rushing down the street, Sho tried to unsuccessfully weasel his way out of his personal assistant's hold.

"Shoko-san, what the hell?"

She didn't answer, just continuously pulled him toward what looked like an awaiting car. A shiny black sedan with a government license plate, Sho noted with growing alarm. Was it the LME unit again? Was it Kyoko?

Only after Shoko had stuffed him into the back seat of the car, did she release the talon-like grip that she had on his arm. Slamming the car door shut behind her, the assistant rapped sharply on the tinted glass separating the back of the car from the front. The driver gunned the engine, pulling the car out into traffic.

"What the hell is this!" Sho demanded, trying not to sound as frightened as he felt. "Who's driving? Where are we going?"

He watched as his usually unflappable assistant placed a shaking hand over her mouth. She took several deep, calming breaths.

"Shoko-san…?"

"I just got a call from your father," Shoko said, her voice a veneer of calm over a quavering core. "The LME unit has discovered that the same organization trying to kidnap Mimori has just put out a hit out on _you_."

 **-x-**

Ren didn't know how he managed to get Kyoko back to their flat in Yokohama. At least, not without either one doing or saying anything that was extraordinarily out of character for the Heel siblings. Yashiro's reassurances that Kijima and Momose had already secured Sho helped.

As Ren unlocked the door to their apartment, he caught sight of Kyoko slipping in and out of character. For the most part on the journey back, she was Setsu, but in moments of quiet, when Ren glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, he could catch glimpses of worry, frustration, and confusion flitting across her face.

But now she was Setsu, staring up blankly at her brother as he smoothly bent and picked her up, carrying her bridal style across the threshold before unceremoniously plopping her in one of the living room chairs. If Ren hadn't been so worried about her, he would have made the effort to check the racing beat of his heart. Cain Heel wasn't so easily stimulated by close bodily contact.

"Stay," Cain ordered, pointing at the chair.

Setsu scowled up at him and tried to struggle away. "Don't be silly, Nii-san. We still have to get groceries for lunch."

"Setsu, you're not feeling well."

His sister shrugged, trying to stand to her feet and push past him. "Lunch isn't going to suddenly appear, and I'm not letting Nii-san go without food."

"You. Sit." Cain placed a firm hand on her lower back, guiding her back around to the cushioned lounge chair and eliminating all argument. Grabbing a blanket from the nearby sofa, he made quick work of her, bundling her up and tucking the ends in.

'She looks like a dumpling,' Ren thought, turning quickly to hide his grin. 'A very cute dumpling.'

"Nii-san… Food…"

"I'll take care of it."

The flat, disbelieving look Setsu sent him spoke volumes.

"What?"

Setsu's eyes narrowed. "The threat of a nuclear explosion in the kitchen and the undoubtedly poisonous end-product won't set me at ease at all. I would feel much more rested if Nii-san would just—"

"I meant I'm going to order delivery."

Slightly mollified, his sister settled back into the chair. Ren could also tell that Setsu was quickly losing the battle for Kyoko's face as the furrow along her brow grew more and more pronounced.

Under strict orders from the President not to break character, Ren was torn.

What was going through Kyoko's mind right now? Confusion about her mother? Concern for her childhood friend? Relief at the threat of his death?

No, that last one wasn't quite right. Ren could almost hear her thinking _, 'But if he's dead, I can't make his life a misery by my own hand…'_

Hence her emotional dilemma – should she allow herself to worry over a man she loathed? Ren wasn't quite sure how he felt about this situation either. While death was certainly a fate the Fuwa heir did not deserve, having Sho on Kyoko's thoughts and in her heart with any emotion aside from hatred was…

But no. He was being selfish right now. Seeing the emotions begin to crack through his partner's carefully crafted facade, he felt a sudden gut-wrenching bout of worry for her.

Unable to restrain himself anymore, Ren stepped close and leaned down. Barely maintaining his Cain mask, he ran a hand through her blonde wig and brushed a gentle kiss against her forehead.

"Don't worry. No matter what, I will always be here to take care of you… Setsu."

Mentally cursing himself and too afraid of her reaction to glance at her face, Ren quickly swiveled around and headed into the kitchen in the next room. After a deep breath to stabilize himself, Cain Heel set about searching the kitchen for a take-out menu.

As he was perusing the options (would Cain Heel eat something like spaghetti?), something caught his eye.

A small, white envelope sat unassumingly on the small dining room table. Ren was very certain that the envelope had not been there when he and Kyoko had left on their impromptu shopping trip this morning.

Flipping the envelope over in his hands, Ren felt his heart begin to beat faster. Printed on the front in nondescript typeface was a simple, "To Mr. Cain Heel."

Quickly, he glanced up, eyes darting around the kitchen. Nothing was out of place. But a professional could come and go without leaving a trace. At least not a visible trace. But hidden listening bugs and cameras were definitely fair game.

Good thing the President had anticipated this possibility and had insisted that the two agents continue their stay in Yokohama in-character. Lory Takarada's scary intuition had proven correct, yet again.

The President's reasoning was that if the Heels had been spotted in the Yamashita capture mission, then someone like Delta might have taken notice. Someone like Delta might even have been thorough enough to ask around, track Cain Heel down, and have someone verify the bounty hunter's identity and purpose (to obtain Yamashita for a third-party unrelated to LME, of course). Someone, like Delta, might even have been interested enough in Cain Heel to contact the head-hunter with a business proposal. After all, the mysterious organization's leader had a knack for attracting the darkest of characters into his arsenal.

And Cain Heel was the darkest of the dark – especially with his particularly gruesome modus operandi for securing targets.

Now aware of the very real possibility of being monitored, Ren straightened fully into Cain Heel. Grabbing a small knife from his back pocket, he slit the envelope roughly open and removed the contents.

Unembellished, white stationary with a thick, high quality paper – Cain noted. On it, in plain typeface, the note read:

" _Hello Heel-san… Or should I say, the man masquerading as Black Jack._ "

Cain quirked a brow. Well, well. His intruder was very well informed.

" _This is an invitation. An invitation to an audition. Midnight tonight, Yokohama Port, Minami Honmoku Pier, the red and blue cargo ship. There's going to be a smuggler there; I want information from him, but his associates need to think him dead. If you can deliver him to me, in your very peculiar fashion, then you might open up opportunities you never considered existed. There is 5-million yen in a box in your pantry. Consider it a gift of good faith. And don't worry about contacting me once the job is done. I'll be in touch."_

Stalking over to the pantry in the corner of the kitchen, Cain quickly found a plain cardboard box on the lowest shelf. As the letter had specified, 5 million yen in crisp, unmarked bills was inside. It was undoubtedly Delta. The timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Setting the box down on the kitchen's granite countertop, Cain quickly peeked into the living room. Setsu was asleep in her chair, legs drawn up to her chest and blonde hair cascading over her face. The blanket was still wrapped tightly around her shoulders. Satisfied, Cain returned to the kitchen and examined the envelope.

Ren knew that this envelope and stationary were familiar. In fact, an identical set was hidden in a secret compartment of his desk back at HQ. An informant from another mission had slipped the white envelope to Ren, hidden among other documents. The envelope that time had been addressed to "Agent T, LME Unit," and the contents had sent Ren's mind reeling.

According to the mysterious letter, the man behind Rick's death was part of a group trying to kidnap a certain heiress from the Fuwa estate. A time and date were given.

Before Ren could even begin an internet search on Fuwa manor to plan his own private infiltration, the President had messaged Agent T, asking him if he would be interested in a solo mission on a personal request from Fuwa Daisuke, the hotel mogul.

Apparently, someone had threatened to kidnap his son's fiancé if Fuwa-sama didn't perform some political favor. The mission was to ensure the girl's safety and to even capture her first if that secured her.

Ren had taken the solo job with no further questions. After all, the man he had been searching for all of these years was finally within his reach.

Unfortunately, in addition to securing the wrong girl entirely, Ren had not gained any new information. He had only been able to place a tracker on the attempted kidnappers, and Yashiro had pinpointed their location to a property owned by Yamashita Sadao before the signal disappeared. And thus, the hunt for the mystery man in Delta's organization had begun.

Therefore, in addition to avoiding Kyoko, when the President had requested an agent to create a deep undercover role that may attract the attention of various nefarious criminal groups, Ren had again jumped at the opportunity.

But who had sent the original tip-off? Was there a traitor within Delta's organization? Was it the same person who had sent this letter now?

And, more pressingly, if Delta had found out where Cain Heel lived – or, rather, where the man behind the serial killer BJ lived – Ren knew that the enigmatic criminal mastermind was probably monitoring the place.

Agent T casually tilted his head and, ensuring his hair obscured his movements, twisted the comm link out of his ear. He smoothly palmed it into his jacket pocket and clicked the power button on the side five times.

Now that Yashiro and the LME unit were notified, Cain Heel grabbed the take-out menu and strolled into the living room to ask his little sister what she wanted to eat for lunch.

And to give her the code word to let her know it was time to go deep undercover. Dangerous Mission was about to enter its second phase.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Japanese Notes:**

\- Sho considers Kanako's behavior "forward," almost to an unsettling degree, because it is very rare, almost to the point of rude to address someone you've just met by not only their first name, but also a shortened version of that first name with any honorific aside from "san." The "kun" honorific is less formal and is usually used among friends or casual acquaintances. It'd be like a rando going up to President Donald Trump and being like, "Suuuuup, Donny!" …Exactly.

\- 5 million yen is the equivalent of $50,000 – Not a crazy amount, but certainly enough to pique the interest of a bounty hunter.

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG**

 **Shizuhoe** – I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter! Hopefully I was able to hold your interest this time around. ;) And Tada~! Unfortunately Sho is back, momentarily. Fortunately, this time around he's not going to be the main antagonist. And yes, indeed… I do believe in breadcrumbs and foreshadowing! There's no use in putting in a twist that you can't point back to later, and be like, "HAH! It was there all along!" As for Kappa's identity, Delta's identity, and the results of the PM election – all will be revealed in due time. In that order, if I may drop a slight hint. ;) Thanks as always for the review!

 **MWEH** – Glad your birthday was a good one, despite the lack of a new chapter. Fortunately new SB chapter is only 1-3 days away! So excited! And yup! You guessed right about the picture being Toudou :D Haha, I'm glad that Chiori's unveiling had you reacting just as I wanted. And I miss poor Chiori as well. Hopefully we'll eventually get to see how her time on that comedy show went! Thanks as always for the review, MWEH! My most faithful reviewer! *hugs*

 **DemolitionLvr** – Ahhhh! Your review made me so happy! For like… weeks, I'd come back and read your review and just bask in this feeling of, "Yay~! Someone actually likes the stuff I'm posting!" Thanks also for the affirmation that Dark Ren isn't toooooo unpleasantly emo. We might see a bit more of Dark Ren in the near future, but hopefully it won't be THAT oppressive and heavy. On a side note, sorry about more Sho… But, he'll only be a minor character and not the main antagonizing force from here on out :D As for fluff, I certainly enjoy fluff as much as the next fangirl, but sometimes… yknow, you just need something MORE. Hopefully the rest of the story will continue to live up to your high praise! Thanks again, DemolitionLvr!

 **Knight Patssier** – Sad day… I always feel upset when I ruin a pan by burning food in it. Recently, I almost set my stove on fire. I was heating some oil up in my husband's beloved cast iron skillet, then tried to be super efficient and hang up some laundry while it was heating up. Bad mistake for scatter-brained me. I got distracted then came back out to see the entire living room and kitchen enveloped in this THICK SMOKE. I had a serious freak out moment. And then, of course, THAT'S when the fire alarm decided to go off. *sigh* Luckily cast iron is rather difficult to set on fire or destroy, haha. Anyway, have you read the most recent chapter? I'm excited that Nakamura-sensei is back from her vacay, and we'll get another one this month! Ugh, these monthly updates are killing me!

 **Guest** – I know exactly what you mean. I spent a good portion of high school, college, and grad school procrastinating from studying by reading fanfiction. But since I got into the career I want, it was ok? :3 Sorry about the slow updates, but as soon as I'm FREEEEEE FOREVER FROM BOARDS as of tomorrow, I'll be updating on a more regular schedule. Thanks for being patient!


	20. Chapter 20

Hello loyal readers,

Ok. Confession time. Lately, I've been really into Miraculous Ladybug. The cartoon itself is a pretty mundane kids show, but the characters and their dynamic have so much potential that it's really interesting reading the fanfictions people have written. Can I get a shout out from my fellow Miraculers?

Sorry if today's chapter is slightly less polished than usual. I don't have time to do my typical fifth read-through and final edit before it goes up, because I'm… GOING ON VACATION! I'll be in Greece and Rome for the next two weeks, so if posts are sporadic, you'll know that I didn't fall off the face of the earth. Haha

As for today… Dangerous Mission Phase Two – START!

 **Thank you all of you who leave reviews and faves and alerts! It's really great motivation!**

* * *

 **-x-**

 **CH20**

The most unsettling thing about the shipping yard at midnight, Kyoko decided, was not the towering maze of stacked rectangular metal shipping containers that trapped her on all sides. Nor was it the cranes that loomed over her in the darkness like metal gallows. Nor was it the dim, flickering streetlights, which probably hadn't been serviced in over a decade and barely broke through the deep darkness of the night.

No, the creepiest thing about Minami Honmoku Pier was definitely the fog that had rolled in about an hour before midnight.

The thick blanket of mist smothered her senses, making her feel dull, deaf, and blind. If there were any threats lurking in the fog, Agent M certainly wouldn't be able to notice them. Kyoko bit back a very un-Setsu-like shiver.

Ever since Cain Heel had awoken Setsu from her nap with the proper code word, Kyoko knew that with the second phase of their Dangerous Mission, she would have little to no bandwidth to worry about things like her mother or Shotaro. – Besides, what would worrying do? Sho-baka was in Momose-san and Kijima-san's capable hands, and Kyoko had no way to affect what her mother was doing in politics. Everything was out of her control.

But considering the box and the letter in the apartment, Delta had had the two "siblings" under surveillance for quite some time. It was 110% Setsuka Heel-mode until their mission was complete. Here was something she _could_ do, if only to distract herself from those troublesome emotions and thoughts.

But this setting was a bit much… For not the first time that night, she regretted leaving her anti-ghost omamori back at HQ before this whole ordeal began. Who cared that it wasn't in line with Setsu's personality to carry a paranormal charm? Setsu, that flashy brother-complex goth-punk girl, would probably welcome a malicious spiritual encounter with open arms!

Well, Kyoko certainly had no intention of being possessed.

Settling for chanting Buddhist exorcism prayers in her head, Agent M glanced down at the GPS tracker app on her smart watch. Cain Heel was still walking leisurely through the stacks of cargo containers to reach the freighter at port. Agent M then glanced down at the ground. Or rather, she glanced at the sturdy black plastic, human-sized bag on the ground.

It was a body bag housing a nondescript Japanese male, fresh to order from Cain's bribe-able coroner contact.

Kyoko had to suppress another shiver as the chilly port wind funneled its way through the towering stacks of metal boxes. She really regretted not bringing her omamori.

Speaking of omamori…

Agent M snuck another glance at the GPS. Her partner was almost at the cargo ship.

The President's words from their last conversation echoed ominously in her memories. On the last day of preparations before Yamashita was meant to meet with the Vie Ghoul assassin in Kabukicho, President Takarada had called her to his office.

 _'Mogami-kun, on this mission, you're to act as Ren's protective charm.'_

 _'Protective charm…?'_

 _'No need to concern yourself too much. It may just be my own paranoia, and the mission may never get to that stage, but… there may come a time when Ren must fight off some demons –'_

 _'Demons!?'_

 _'–but with you by his side, he will certainly succeed in conquering them.'_

 _'But… President… How am I supposed to help him fight off… d-demons?'_

 _'Why, just continue acting out your Setsu and continue to support him. And if that fails… Well, I suppose you can try giving him a kick in the seat of the pants. That guy will eventually figure out everything else on his own.'_

Demons! The President was being far too glib about the supernatural world. And kicking her honored senpai! Unthinkable! Allowing herself a mild Setsu-frown, Kyoko paused in her mental diatribe.

Maybe it wasn't actual, real demons… Maybe it was…

A memory flashed through Kyoko's mind – Reino's pale, panicked face as Ren held him aloft by the front of his shirt and mercilessly choked the assassin. And then this afternoon when Cain had woken Setsu from her nap… The cold but eager look in his eyes…

This time, she couldn't hold back her shiver.

Quickly reclaiming her mask as Setsu, the Heel sibling glanced around the pier to see if anyone had caught her minor slip-up. However, unless the ship's entire crew was hiding behind a stack of containers, the dock was still deserted. A thought niggled at the back of Agent M's mind. She didn't know much about cargo ships, but shouldn't they have a night shift or a night guard… or someone – _anyone_ around?

Her eyes narrowed. It was far too quiet. Something wasn't right.

Trying to keep Setsu's uninterested facade, Agent M's eyes panned across the misty landscape, eventually reaching the cargo ship in the distance. Then–!

A quick flash of light. Kyoko's head swiveled to look up. There! Again through the mist, she could just make out the steady glow of a light. It looked to be at the upper levels, near the ship's bridge. But it wasn't a red light, which Kyoko had seen attached to the tops of the cranes to warn low-flying planes away from potential obstacles.

This was a white light… A rectangular patch that seemed to float through the mist above where the freighter should be. Snatching the binoculars off of her belt pouch, Agent M brought them to her eyes and gazed at the light, willing the fog to clear just for a bit. As if listening to her plea, for a brief moment, the sea breeze parted the mists… It was the bridge of the ship, high above the main cargo deck; the light in the bridge had turned on. A blurry person-shaped shadow crossed the bridge's window.

Biting back a gasp of horror, Kyoko tried not to fumble the binoculars and drop them. Past her terror, she knew that it would be the least Setsu-like she had done all evening. However, while she was trying to regain her composure, she noticed that the light in the distance suddenly winked out.

Then her earpiece squawked to life. It was Agent T. He had made contact with his mark and was transmitting audio. At first static, then…

"You the smuggler I'm looking for?" Her partner's deep baritone came over the speaker with the gruffness of Cain Heel.

"Hm? Depends on who's asking." It was another man's voice, sarcastic and playful, but with a sharp, dangerous undertone, like a hidden knife.

There was the rustling of cloth and a fierce shout of protest. Instead of answering, the elder Heel sibling had tried to physically subdue his mark. Kyoko held her hand against her earpiece, trying to amplify the audio.

Apparently, the attack had failed, as the smuggler cried out, "What the hell? You bastard! Who the hell are you?"

The man possessed some level of skill to be able to block Agent T's first strike. Agent M tried to steady her breathing and calm the queasy feeling in her gut. Setsu wouldn't be nearly so worried about her brother. She had 120% confidence in him, that no man could beat her Nii-san. Hence, Setsu was only around to guard the body bag and for absolute emergencies. Not only did Cain refuse her help, but also Setsu didn't believe her brother needed it.

However, that darn characterization was placing her partner in unnecessarily precarious situations.

Still uneasy, the junior agent glanced up at the ship again. The light was completely gone.

Over the speaker, Kyoko heard the smuggler chuckle with dark humor.

"Oh… I recognize _you_. So the infamous Cain Heel has come to take me away, huh?"

Apparently, the bounty hunter found it unnecessary to respond verbally. Instead, Kyoko heard the weighty telltale _click_ of Cain's pistol being cocked.

"Turning to violence so soon?" The smuggler jabbed smugly. "How about we bargain first? What do you like? Guns? Drugs? Women? I have a knack for getting things few others can…"

But Cain was having none of it. "On your knees. Hands in the air."

Agent M heard no movement. Instead, she heard the other man chuckle again.

"Material goods don't interest you? How about information? I have the good stuff too. For instance, perhaps, the true identity of a particular bounty hunter who goes by the name… Cain Heel. Ever heard of him?"

Kyoko couldn't breathe. All of the air left her body. All she could do was think – 'A trap. This is a trap. Agent T is in danger… Tsuruga-san… REN!'

In an absolute panic, Setsu's mask nearly discarded, Kyoko whirled around toward the ship.

As the smuggler spoke again, she heard the words with her ears, but her mind, racing as fast as her feet, could hardly make any sense of them.

"You damned foreigner. You're really just a bloodthirsty murderer. A devil hiding behind an indifferent mask. Well, I know your true identity behind that mask…"

Kyoko missed her partner's next words, but if she had heard them, though she would not have fully understood, her blood would still have run cold from the sheer unrecognizable sadism in his dark tone.

"You… I've finally found you."

 **-x-**

(AN: I don't often do this, but I highly recommend opening Youtube and listening to the Persona 5 song, Blooming Villain, during this next section. It was seriously the perfect song.)

 _Finallyfinallyfinally_ – each erratic beat of his racing heart seemed to shout. With each passing moment, with each surging step, Kuon felt himself closing in on the man. The man who had ruined his life. The man who he hated with all of his being. The man who had caused Rick's death.

Though Kuon could not see the man's face behind the mask covering his mouth and nose and the dark hooded sweatshirt that cloaked most of his face in shadow, he _knew_. From the moment that man had uttered the words, _"_ _You're really just a bloodthirsty murderer" –_ Kuon _knew_ it had to be him.

No one else would know his deepest, darkest secret. The secret that, in reality, Tsuruga Ren was not only a foreigner but also the fact that he was a—

At a full sprint, the hooded man swerved sharply behind a tall stack of metal shipping containers on the ship's main deck. Kuon put on an extra boost of speed to follow – only to turn the corner and find himself boxed in on three sides by more containers, locked into a dead end. An empty dead end.

"Hah! Is that the best you can do?" The taunt came from above – and Kuon's head snapped up. Silhouetted in the fog-muted moonlight, standing astride the double-stacked shipping containers, the supposed smuggler leered down at him from six meters off the ground.

Quickly calculating in his mind, Kuon backed up a couple of steps. Then he took off sprinting toward the back of the dead end, angling to the left. Using his momentum, he ran a couple of gravity-defying steps to the top of the left container before coiling his legs underneath himself and performing a powerful front-flip. The flip launched him across the gap of the dead end until _THUNK_ – he caught the top edge of the opposite container, knuckles whitening at the strain.

He heard his prey utter a sharp curse as Kuon hoisted the rest of his body over the edge. By the time he got all the way up, his target was already sprinting away across the tops of the shipping containers stacked on the deck.

As he dashed after his quarry, like a demon out of hell, Kuon felt a dark, hungry grin slip over his face. He felt like laughing. It was a familiar mask. It was comfortable. It was the expression he wore right before he was about to beat the shit out of someone.

 **-x-**

Breathing heavily, Agent M took a precious moment to rest at the top of the freighter's gangway. Leaning against the metal railing that lined the ship's side, she brought up her wrist to check the watch's GPS.

Agent T's marker was moving fast across the starboard side of the ship toward the bow. It seemed as though he were being chased up the ship towards her. But, good. His tracker was still working.

While enroute from the dock, Agent M had finally tamped down most of her panic and had repeatedly attempted to listen in to the audio feed from Cain. There was nothing but static. Also, her communications to him weren't going through. But either he was intentionally ignoring her, or someone was jamming the signal.

Neither option seemed very appealing.

An angry shout caught her attention. Agent M looked up sharply, squinting through the mist. Two dark figures raced precariously across the stacks of metal shipping containers on the deck. They leapt smoothly from one stack to another.

Agent M whipped out her 9mm semi-automatic. Taking aim at the pursuing man's shadow, she became very aware that this time, these weren't rubber bullets. This was live ammo.

Watching the two men run closer, Kyoko decided that she would wait until he was nearer and visibility was better. Then she'd go for his leg. But if she happened to miss, she'd just call it a warning shot.

Almost there…

Summoning Setsu's persona, she prepared to call out a warning to her brother, just as he was about to come into view.

However it wasn't her brother leading the pursuer. A strange, hooded man burst through the mist instead.

Either he didn't see her or he ignored her, intent on getting a running start to leap across a large gap in front of him. He landed on the next shipping container, with a loud, hollow _thunk_ before rolling once to dispel the extra energy and dashing away.

Agent M had no time to shout in surprise. The tall, dark silhouette of Cain Heel tore out of the fog, and Kyoko was about to call out to him, when she stopped short, her voice caught in her throat. All she could do was watch in stunned silence as he mimicked the hooded man, leaping the gap before springing forward, out of sight.

"What…?" The small, quavering whimper finally came out. She felt her gun barrel drift listlessly downward. "Who…?"

From the back of her mind, some part of her screamed, 'KYOKO _MOVE_!'

Shocked out of her stupor, she shook her head and with a scowl, started sprinting forward on the deck, holstering her weapon as she went. Her blonde hair trailed in the wind behind her as she jinked around corners, often having to backtrack through alleyways of containers as she tried to catch up to her partner.

She felt winded from the continual sprinting, especially since she was at a disadvantage on the ground floor, but a fearful desperation drove her forward, faster and faster.

'Tsuruga-san is not Cain… Is this the character he's created for BJ? But no… That smile. BJ is supposed to be an emotionless sociopath. Who… Who is he now?'

But then she took a wrong turn, and suddenly she could no longer see Ren or the man he was chasing. Dead end. The metallic echoes of their footsteps seemed to come from all directions at once. Turning in circles at the dead end, Kyoko felt completely lost. A knot of unease wound itself tightly inside her gut, threatening to paralyze her.

 _Ren's knuckles whitening as he held the Vie Ghoul assassin aloft._

His face looked so similar to that time... Furiously angry, but also... A spark of enjoyment from deep within. If he hadn't been wearing the same outfit as Cain Heel, Kyoko had no confidence that she would have been able to even recognize him.

But no.

On the ferris wheel, what seemed like a decade ago now, Ren had asked for her support on this mission. She could still remember his reflection in the gondola's window – his eyes held such deep sorrow and pain.

She was going to trust Ren. The President had warned her that this mission might be dangerous for him. Her senpai himself had asked for her help. She wasn't going to give up on him so easily!

Shaking her head once more to clear it, Kyoko spun on her heel to find her way out of the dead end. Glancing down at the GPS tracker on her watch, Kyoko picked a direction and sprang forward with renewed energy.

Two minutes of chasing later, she found herself on the upper command deck by the freighter's bridge. Breathing heavily, Agent M checked her GPS watch again.

This couldn't have been right… According to the signal, she should be right on top of him, but she was the only one on this deck.

Then realization. She gasped and looked up. High above the bridge, and even higher above the main deck, was another five meters of steel girder scaffolding with a narrow rectangular platform surrounded by metal railing at the top. On the platform, sizing one another up, were the hooded man and Agent T.

Before she could react, the smuggler had fished something out from behind his back. A gun. As Kyoko watched in horror, he loosed two shots toward Ren.

But her partner was apparently anticipating this, as he dove forward the instant the other man's hand had come up, rolling across the platform to strike from below at the smuggler's legs.

Ren's opponent managed to jump over the leg-sweep, but as he landed, the hooded man's ankle rolled slightly, placing him off balance. Agent T immediately took advantage, grabbing the man's arm and slamming the wrist viciously against the chest-high metal railing.

With a curse, the man watched his gun tumble down to the deck.

Kyoko could see Ren's mouth moving, still twisted into that sickly smirk, but the sea wind blew his words away. She could only see the other man's reaction.

And it was… confusion? He cocked his head to the side and took an uneasy step back, cradling his injured hand.

While still keeping one eye on them, Kyoko was trying to find a way up when she saw Ren dart forward to strike. With a lunge, he placed his hands on the railings and used his momentum to kick upward at the hooded man. His opponent barely blocked the strike, using his crossed forearms to absorb most of the blow as he slid back on the platform.

Feeling the unease slip back into the base of her throat, Kyoko could only watch as Ren, still bearing his ghastly smile, continued to stalk forward. The other man was completely cornered.

Then Kyoko saw the ladder. It was a slim series of metal ladder rungs that ran from the command deck all the way up to the platform. The smuggler was trapped at the edge of the platform closest to the ladder.

As she ran toward the ladder, Agent M saw Ren stumble backward, clutching his stomach. The smuggler must have gotten in a surprise hit. While the supposed bounty hunter was distracted, the hooded man was trying to climb over the metal railing to reach the ladder as well.

A small part of Kyoko felt a burst of relief that he was going to be able to escape. There was no telling what Agent T would have done to him at that moment.

Too soon to celebrate.

As soon as she'd had that thought, an arm shot out from behind the smuggler, pulling his neck back and holding him in an iron chokehold. The smuggler's feet scrabbled for purchase on the floor as his hands came up to uselessly push at the arm that was essentially dangling him off the tall platform.

Kyoko skid to a halt, her breath leaving her. If Ren dropped him in the wrong place, the smuggler could very well topple over the edge of the command deck to the lower level below. A fall from that height would be enough to kill any man.

She was about to cry out, when a loud _bang_ caught her attention behind her. The heavy metal door to the ship's bridge had swung violently open, and out popped a small, shivering young woman with chin-length light brown hair. In her hands, she held a gun, and she was pointing it at Ren.

Before her conscious mind could even respond to this new threat, Kyoko found that she had swiftly drawn her own firearm, leveling it coldly at the visibly nervous newcomer.

"Who the hell are _you_?" Luckily, Setsu's voice came out while Kyoko was on autopilot.

The woman, who looked to be only slightly older than Kyoko herself, yelped and whirled to find herself being held at gunpoint as well.

"What are _you_ doing _here,_ scary lady?"

'What? Scary lady?' Instead of voicing her confusion, Setsu barked, "Drop your weapon!"

At this command, the woman shook her head wildly, instead turning back to point her gun at the two men struggling above. Kyoko noted with alarm that the girl's hands were shaking violently.

"N-No way!" The brown-haired girl retorted with growing stubbornness. "My best wiretap supplier is going to get killed by that creepy man!"

"Wha–?"

"I was just supposed to observe, but I can't do _nothing_!" The girl's hands were trembling uncontrollably as she tried to place her finger over the trigger.

A terrible, sinking feeling plummeted to the bottom of Kyoko's gut. If Cain didn't let the smuggler live, he was going to get shot by this weepy, mouse of a girl who had no business holding a gun.

There was no time to reason with her or threaten her. Kyoko did the first thing that popped into her head.

"Nii-san! You mustn't kill!"

* * *

 **-x-**

Japanese notes:

 **Omamori** – a fabric charm that is commonly bought at Shinto shrines for various superstitious reasons: blessing, health, good test scores, protection during travels.

 **-x-**

MAILBAG:

 **Knight Patssier** – Yup! It's petty inconveniences, but let's be honest. It's pretty enjoyable watching Sho wallow in an accumulation of minor miseries. ;)

 **brennakai** – Thanks for leaving a review! It really means a lot to me! Muhaha, I wonder if you're going to be right about Delta and the traitor (if there is one). Thank you for YOUR thanks! I really enjoyed reading your comments!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – I think it'll be a bigger relief once I get my results back! Technically, I still don't know if I passed… But I felt pretty good walking out of the exam, so hopefully it was ok! I'm really really glad you liked last chapter! We're going to get more of Setsu and Cain for a few more chapters now that they're going to be deep undercover! Thanks as always Aikori! Curious about your name: does it mean anything? :D

 **MWEH** – Of course you're my most faithful reviewer! Not just anybody can be 19 for 19 like you are. ;) (I think you ended up reviewing every single chapter!) And yup, I had a lot of fun writing a lot of minor annoyances that culminates in one gigantic headache for Sho. Maria knows her jinxes! I'm really glad that you think the mystery is building well without being laid on too thick or thin! As for Kanako… maybe she's just a really nice civilian girl who just happens to remind Sho of Kyoko. Heh. Thanks for the well wishes on the exam! I think it went well, but I'm still languishing, waiting for the results. What did you think of the most recent manga chapter?

 **-x-**

 **Don't forget to leave a review, a fave, or an alert! Any and all motivation is greatly appreciated!**


	21. Chapter 21

Hello loyal readers,

I just got back from my vacation and boy am I excited to be back and to have another installment of our story for you all! For all of you who were asking, Rome and Greece were beautiful, historic, and chaotic. I always find vacations to be somewhat exhausting though, so I am somewhat relieved to be home. Hotel beds ain't got nothin' on my own bed!

This past week, we crossed another landmark – 50 faves! We're almost to 100 alerts and 150 reviews as well. Brings a tear to my eye – thank you all!

Today, we get the reveal of several new characters and our two favorite agents get sucked a little bit deeper into Delta's organization.

Enjoy!

 **As always, thank you so much for your reviews, favorites, and alerts. Please remember that your responses are a great source of motivation for me. Love you guys!**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH21**

"Nii-san! You mustn't kill!"

Nii-san?

Ren felt as though he were waking from a dream, struggling up through the depths of his consciousness and the darkness before he emerged into reality. Like a near-drowned man, he sucked in a desperate, gasping breath that left him feeling exhausted but finally whole. Panting in exhaustion, Ren realized that he still had the smuggler pinned at the ledge of the platform. Though he felt the brief temptation to just let go, Cain Heel was only meant to capture, not to kill. Shifting his arm down to lay across the man's collarbone, Ren pulled him with an almighty heave over the metal railing. The man landed with a shout and a crash onto the metal platform behind Ren.

Feeling like a man half-possessed, Ren watched the smuggler lay at his feet, coughing and gasping for air. A surge of anger rose up within Ren again. This was the man who had caused Rick's death—.

"I guess Nii-san is the type who likes to go all out at work. You really beat the living crap out of this loser."

Ren turned and saw his partner, fully in character, climbing leisurely up the metal ladder to the platform. With a sinking sensation, Ren realized that he had completely cast aside his roles – both as Cain Heel and as Tsuruga Ren. In front of Mogami-san, no less.

Oh no… Had she found out? Was she scared of him? Would she –?

Interrupting his panicking thoughts, Setsu unhurriedly finished climbing to the top of the platform, dusted off her black leather pants, and peered up at his face.

"What?" Ren tried to summon Cain Heel to the forefront and was only partially successful. His heart was thudding too wildly inside of his chest for him to fully concentrate.

In lieu of answering, Setsu merely brought her hands up, smacking him on both cheeks. Ren barely repressed the instinct to flinch, thinking he was getting slapped. Instead, Setsu only began pinching his cheeks then digging her fingers into the corners near his mouth, pulling up and then pushing down.

Slightly annoyed now, Cain Heel slipped easily into place.

"Setsu."

"Hmmm…?"

"What are you doing?"

Still squinting up at his face, his younger sister finally stopped and dropped her arms to her sides, shrugging with one shoulder.

"I don't know," she intoned as she continued to inspect him by tilting her head this way and that. "Nii-san had a weird look on his face for a while."

Wincing internally, Ren waited for the other shoe to drop.

However, Setsu merely tipped her head forward and gave him her sultry-smooth smile. "But Nii-san is back to normal now. Although, I wish sometimes you'd chase after _me_ like that…"

"Ugh! Can you _stop_ , you perverted siblings! My ears are going to start bleeding!"

Cain turned to glare at the smuggler, who was still sitting on the floor.

"You…" Ren struggled to keep his voice steady as Cain Heel. "You know who I really am?"

The smuggler glared in return and rose shakily to his feet. The hood fell back off his head, revealing a mop of mussed, dark wavy hair.

"That's right!" The man crowed tauntingly. Ren's heart beat wildly in his chest as the smuggler reached up to yank the mask off his lower face. He was a young man with sharp, handsome features and a haughty smirk. As he pointed an accusatory finger at Cain, he cried with all the enthusiasm of a TV-show detective, "You're really… the serial killer, BJ!"

Ren merely blinked. Then blinked again.

Clearly not expecting such a lack-luster response, the young man tried again, jabbing his finger at Cain, "You're not just a bounty hunter – you foreigner British scum – you're really a blood thirsty serial killer!"

From a corner of his mind, Ren heard Setsu ask wryly, "Does Nii-san know this idiot?"

Before he could stop the words, Ren heard himself reply incredulously, "Who the hell is this guy?"

However, before Ren could get an answer, he heard the sound of solitary applause from below. He and Setsu exchanged looks then leaned over the railing to stare down at the command deck.

On the deck, next to a short young woman with light brown hair stood a middle-aged man with round glasses, clapping and grinning widely.

"Well done, Murasame-kun! And bravo to our newest recruits, Setsu and Cain Heel!"

 **-x-**

"So it was all just a test." Setsu stared flatly at the pudgy, spectacled man in front of them. Cain could tell from the slight tension in her voice that she was annoyed.

"Yes, quite!" The man, who had introduced himself as Konoe Tomohiko, the Strategic Operations Director for Delta, was obviously pleased with himself. He stood proudly, fists on hips, trying desperately to ignore the smuggler and girl squabbling behind him.

Cain didn't say a word. He just turned around and started walking away. With a flip of her hair, Setsu followed right after him.

"Wait wait wait!" Hearing the man run across the deck after them, Cain paused. Clearly panicking, the Director held his hands up in defense. "This wasn't a waste of your time! You responded to an audition invitation, correct? We are in great need of someone with your particular talents within our organization."

At that, Cain turned fully back around, leveling his most menacing glare at the Director. "And what do you know about my talents?"

"Hah!" Clearly eavesdropping on the conversation, the dark-haired smuggler, who Konoe had introduced as Murasame Taira, dashed forward to stand next to Konoe. He again pointed an accusatory finger at Cain. "Your only talent is that you're a ruthless, merciless serial killer!"

Murasame turned to address Konoe, crossing his arms over his chest. "Director Konoe, I already told you. We don't need a guy like this in Henshin. Why the hell would Delta want a serial killer pretending to be a bounty hunter?"

'Henshin?' Agent T noted from the back of his mind. 'Was that the name of Delta's organization?'

Nonetheless, this guy had it all wrong.

"How sad…" Cain intoned, ever the minimalist with words.

Murasame perked up, clearly and correctly feeling antagonized. "What did you say, asshole?"

"He means," Setsu piped up while continuing to give the smuggler her most withering stare, "'How sad, your brain is so full of holes that it must be like emmental cheese.'"

"…What's emmental cheese?"

"Here, Murasame-san!" The short, brown-haired girl popped up beside him, holding a high-tech looking tablet in her hands. "I did a quick Google search for you!"

As the smuggler looked at the tablet and then started spluttering another round of curses while the girl giggled, Konoe simply sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose under his spectacles.

"Murasame-kun… Did you even read the mission briefing?"

"Of course I did!"

"Then you read it backwards," the Director said flatly. "You have it reversed. Cain Heel is not a serial killer pretending to be a bounty hunter. He is a bounty hunter pretending to be a serial killer."

"Ah–! Oh… Ehh?"

Cain tried not to get distracted mentally cataloguing the myriad of stupid emotions that crossed the smuggler's face as he grappled with this clearly paradigm-shifting information. Instead Cain turned back to Konoe, who had coughed politely into his hand to bring the focus back to the matters at hand.

The middle-aged man regarded Cain thoughtfully. "You created the legend of a bloodthirsty but imaginary serial killer so you could frame him for your abductions of targets. All you need is to stage the scene of the 'murder' with a previously acquired but quite unrelated body that you've mangled beyond recognition. After all, in many situations, certain gangs or criminal networks would become suspicious of police activity if one of their members suddenly went missing without a trace.

"It's a very unique approach to the age-old problem of bounty hunters: how to acquire targets without stepping on the toes of the government enforcement bodies who write your paycheck. The fact that the Japanese cremate all their dead has certainly worked to your advantage. No one really misses the bodies."

The Heel siblings merely accepted this lengthy explanation in silence.

"Am I wrong?" Konoe chuckled heartily. "My intelligence gathering is rather top notch. And your contact at the morgue is quite chatty."

Before Cain could say anything else, the girl with short brown hair ran up to him, eyes wide in awe.

"Cain-san is not nearly as scary as I had thought. Maybe your scary attitude is just an act and you really are kind at heart, but just seem scary because you don't know how to deal with people well and are just waiting for someone to notice you and help you to change for the better—!"

All Cain could do was stare in incredulity at this bizarre specimen of a female as she continued her fantasy-infused rant with exuberant gesticulations. The only person who had a wilder imagination was—

His eyes darted down to look at Setsu who seemed at a similar loss for how to deal with such an odd character.

However while he was distracted, the brown-haired girl had taken it upon herself to pull his focus back to herself by looping her arm around his and yanking him downward to her eye level.

"What the hell?"

"Ne, ne Heel-san! Rule #3 of proper social interaction is to always pay attention to someone who is talking to you!"

"Manaka-chan!" Both Kondo and Murasame snapped out of their own shock to leap forward and try to detach her from Cain's arm. Murasame reached her first and pried her off, grabbing her by the scruff of her neck.

"Stop getting ahead of yourself, you crazy girl! This isn't one of your damn mangas."

Manaka took an unsuccessful swing at Murasame. "No, this is just how the hero and heroine usually meet – under bad circumstances! You don't know anything, baka-Murasame! Then the two get over their initial dislike and eventually fall in love and–"

While the two squabbled and Konoe tried to keep the peace, Cain glanced down. Setsu had fortunately stayed put, but her eyes held this lifeless, glassy quality that he didn't like one bit.

"Setsu."

"…"

"Setsu?"

Snapping back to herself with a soft but sharp gasp, Setsu turned and pointedly glared at the ground. Before she could respond, Konoe was clearing his throat.

"My apologies Heel-san. Ono Manaka is our organization's surveillance and technology expert. She... Let's just say that she doesn't get out much. However, back to the matter at hand. If you two would like, even though the test may have gotten cut short this time–" Konoe pointedly looked at Manaka who avoided eye contact with feigned innocence "—It was still a good enough show of skill that Delta has authorized me to extend you both an invitation to join Henshin."

"Henshin?" Cain echoed.

"Delta?" Setsu asked at the same time. Agent T almost smirked. Well played, Mogami-san. The Heel siblings shouldn't know about Delta quite yet.

"Ah! Yes," the Director's voice took on a wistful quality. "Though we are but a meager, rag-tag bunch who don't always play on the right side of the law, our leader Delta has brought us together to help us redeem ourselves by changing society for the better and reforming the corrupt within it."

Setsu crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowing. "And how the hell are we supposed to reform society with what Nii-san does?"

Konoe rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "That information, unfortunately, is classified. However, you can be assured that Delta has a thorough plan to use every single one of you to your utmost abilities. And pay you handsomely for your troubles."

Cain and Setsu shared a glance. Agent T knew that they had been playing hard to get up until this point, but now their hard work was about to pay off. He had so many more questions for the man in front of him, yet Cain Heel wasn't one to pry. It was going to be a delicate balance acquiring information about Henshin and Delta without revealing their hand and raising suspicion.

Taking their silence for indecision, Konoe's hands flew up again, palms open and pleading. "It really is an arrangement that can't be far from your current one –obtaining targets for whoever promises to foot the bill. However Henshin has a much better payoff. Both financially and morally."

"Maybe Cain-san is worried because he is supposed to go back to the UK next week?" Manaka piped up from behind Murasame who quickly slapped his hand over her mouth.

Cain exchanged a sidelong glance with his sister. Now how would they know something like _that_ …

"I guess we can postpone going back home." Setsu looked at the surveillance expert with narrowed eyes.

"Well, if you two have no pressing matters back in England–!" Konoe interjected with the rushed cadence of someone trying to change the topic. He offered his hand to Cain. "How about it?"

After a pause and a curt nod from his sister, the bounty hunter leaned forward to grasp the Director's hand in a firm shake.

 **-x-**

Director Konoe promised to keep in touch for their next assignments, eagerly christening Cain and Setsu as Chi and Sigma, respectively. However, as the Heel siblings were about to depart, Manaka managed to wriggle out of Murasame's grip, dart forward, and grab Cain's arm, demanding that the bounty hunter stay in contact with her as well.

Apparently, that was the last straw for Setsuka. As the younger Heel stalked off toward the docks, Murasame pried Manaka off Cain again before pulling her back to the bridge to collect her "stupid equipment" while Konoe fretfully trailed them. With one last lingering glance at the Henshin operatives, Cain followed his sister off the ship and to the pier. He retrieved the unneeded body bag and its occupant before walking to the car and tossing the body in the trunk. They would have to make a pit stop at the Yokohama city morgue on the way home.

Setsu was already sitting in the passenger's seat, arms folded tightly over her chest. The radio blared heavy death metal music at a volume loud enough to cause Agent T's chest to vibrate in time with the bass. When he entered the car, she merely harrumphed and refused to even look at her brother for the duration of the trip home.

Agent T chuckled internally. He supposed that this was Setsu's version of brooding.

Settling in for the drive back to their apartment, Ren's thoughts turned to his frantic chase across the cargo ship. Stifling an internal groan, Ren remembered that he had almost compromised their entire mission with his rash assumptions. Fortunately, his partner had been there to stop him.

A quick glance revealed that Setsu was still glaring at the dash with such intensity that Ren was surprised it didn't erupt into flame.

Turning his attention back to the road, Agent T tried to quell the nauseous, nervous feeling that had been burbling up from his gut the moment since Setsu had called out to him on the command deck. All of the darkness that he was supposed to have suppressed had come bursting out like an unholy geyser at the slightest provocation.

'Will this mission be ok?' Ren thought grimly as he took a left turn a little more sharply than he had meant to. 'Will _I_ be ok?'

But he was getting closer to Delta's organization, and the man within who had caused Rick's death. Years of dead ends and failure and false hopes – Ren couldn't turn back now. He would just have to try harder to control himself in the future.

It was all for the sake of his vengeance. If he couldn't get revenge… if Ren didn't have a scapegoat to target, then he might just be forced to come to terms with the fact that by his own hand, he had actually been the one–

No. Immediately Ren stuffed all of his doubts and uncertainty back into that dark, untraversed corner of his mind.

Gripping the steering wheel tightly, Ren scowled at the road ahead. Closing his eyes momentarily, then opening them, he was once again Cain Heel.

There was no turning back now.

 **-x-**

"Tau-san? Are you cold? Do you want me to ask the driver to turn up the heater?" Manaka cocked her head and watched him. The flick-flick-flick of the passing street lights illuminated in segments the concern etched on her face.

Slightly embarrassed to have been caught mid-shiver, Murasame Taira, or Tau, raised a sheepish hand and shook his head. "No need to worry, Omi-chan. I'm absolutely fine!"

Though he had meant it to sound firm and manly, his last statement came out a strangled squawk.

Puffing her cheeks out, Omicron planted fists on her hips and frowned at the smuggler. "But you're completely blue in the face! You must've caught a cold or something!"

Murasame let his eccentric flat-mate continue to rant, promising that as soon as they got home, she'd order in some Murasame-core and Murasame-blood, then he'd feel as right as rain.

However, Murasame couldn't even begin to think about fried food and soda. Even though he was far away from that crazy bounty hunter, he still felt chills running down his spine.

An image flashed through his mind – the tall man stalking toward him on the platform, his dark hair whipping crazily back and forth in the wind. His unhinged, manic smile.

" _You're the one who caused his death. My life has been a living hell… and now, what remains of your life will be too!"_

An uncontrollable tremor that felt like an 8.0 on the Richter scale of shivers rippled through his body. Even when he was a juvenile delinquent, he had never felt anything larger than a 6.5! Surreptitiously so Manaka wouldn't see, Murasame started blowing warm air into his fists.

It was unlike him to make such an obvious mistake like misreading the mission briefing, but could anyone really blame him?

That was no ordinary man… More like a monster. Despite Director Konoe's insistence, Murasame felt more inclined to believe his own version of Cain Heel's story – that the man was a serial killer posing as a bounty hunter, instead of vice versa. Someone had definitely been conned into believing otherwise.

That guy was the real deal. A blood-thirsty, cold-blooded killer.

What on earth could Delta want from a guy like that?

 **-x-**

* * *

 **NOTES:**

 **Made up names:** Manaka to my knowledge does not have a last name. Everyone just calls her "Manaka-chan" –hence Ono Manaka. I figured that you guys wouldn't mind a little pun at our obnoxious little hamster's expense. ;)

Konoe's first name Tomohiko was chosen because… He kind of looks like a Tomohiko!

 **Henshin** – to transform, metomorphosize

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG:**

 **Shizuhoe** – Thanks for the well-wishes for my trip! I really wish I'd had time to go visit Pompeii as well; I've wanted to see the ruins ever since reading about it in 4th grade. Rome was pretty great too, but definitely do-able in a few days. The most interesting thing I saw was on a Crypts and Catacombs tour. There was an early monastery decorated entirely with human bones! I'm very proud that I made you laugh twice! Once for Maria and another for Lory's speech. I might have said this before, but I feel like one of my weaknesses is writing humor, so I'll take what I can get! As for Kanako, the person contacting Ren, and Kappa… We shall see! Muhahaha! Thanks again Shizuhoe!

 **Guest** – Hello fellow Miraculer! Leave a name next time so I can differentiate you :D. I recently had "Bavarian camembert," but it wasn't smelly at all unlike Plagg's version. I was kind of disappointed and felt as if it wasn't authentic… but then again, it was served on an airplane during a 13 hour flight, so I guess it was for the best that it wasn't particularly odorous. Haha

 **Guest** – I'm really glad that you like it! Good question about the grudge demons: in my AU, Kyoko is not as explicitly supernatural. She does manifest some sort of creepy aura that has a tangible impact on reality (see CH4 when she confronts Sho for the first time), but other than that, no manifested grudge demons. But obviously, this universe is supernatural enough that Maria can actually place a curse on Sho. ;) Thanks for the review! Leave a name next time so I can differentiate you :D

 **Guest** – Thank youuuuu! Glad you think it's exciting!

 **MWEH** – I know right?! Ugh… I really hope that for the acting test, Kyoko gets paired with Kanae so they can pull another Curara stunt that blows all the other competition out of the water! I'm looking forward to seeing what Ren gets Kyoko for White Day… After all this time and pain and effort, it better be something good! I agree about Koga; it was refreshing to see someone who doesn't fawn over Ren all the time, but I think that Koga means "bully" in a good-natured sort of way. Certainly not in the underhanded, malicious way that Kimiko is bullying Kyoko right now. (rolls eyes) Hahaha, I take it the music suggestion didn't agree with you? I do admit that the original piece has a very jarring first 10-15 seconds. The song after that intro part really gets the blood pumping! Then again, to each his own with music! Thanks again MWEH!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Thaaaaaanks! Both for the compliments on the action sequences and for the Santorini recommendation. Unfortunately, I visited Santorini as a part of a cruise that moved pretty fast between the islands. We had two different excursions per day, each at a different island. While this meant that I was able to see Mykonos, Ephesus (Kusadasi, Turkey), Patmos, Crete, and Santorini in the span of 3 days – it also meant that there was pretty much no down time to explore and really enjoy the location. Now that I know what I liked (Santorini, Mykonos, Ephesus) and what I didn't (Patmos was so-so and Crete was a snooze-fest), maybe next time I'll be able to pick a different cruise and enjoy it more. And lol, same here. I feel like almost everyone who was really into the manga/anime scene in their teen years has cringe-y stories. Don't worry. You're in good company. Lol

 **TaleWeaver** – Thanks for the PM! I really, truly appreciate that you didn't write what was a pretty accurate guess of one aspect of the story's biggest twists in the public review section for everyone to see. LOL High five though! I'd say you're 90% accurate – the best so far! Given your track record, I'd guess that you're either a fan of mystery novels or ought to be writing them yourself. ;) As for the online manga, I usually read it off of mangahere but I also became a member of a Facebook SB fan group recently, and I find the newest chapters are posted there faster. I look forward to hearing your feedback once you've "glutted" yourself on all the other chapters! Haha Thanks TaleWeaver!


	22. Chapter 22

Hello loyal readers,

I have officially passed my boards! WOOHOO! Now to find a job… Ughhhh… If there's anything I hate more than writer's block and mosquitoes, it's job hunting. Am I the only one that gets extremely uncomfortable putting myself out there and trying to essentially sell myself to future employers?

Everyone else is fine with this? Fine.

Today we have Kyoko starting to realize her feelings, a little bit of Kanae getting her "forced treatment" courtesy of the President for her hatred of familial love, and a little bit of diabolical Delta. Longer chapter today – hope you enjoy!

 **Please don't forget to leave a fave, an alert, or a review! It really means the world to me!**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH22**

"Setsu."

Setsu continued to avoid looking at her brother as she stalked past him and into their apartment. She kicked off her black combat boots violently at the door, leaving them strewn messily in her wake.

She heard his heavy footfalls as he trudged across the threshold and pulled his shoes off at the door. "Setsu..."

"What," she demanded. She immediately went to the kitchen and busied herself making the loudest racket she could, banging pots and pans as she put dishes away.

"Setsu."

She ignored him.

"It's three in the morning."

"So?"

"What on earth are you cooking?"

Immediately, Setsu ceased her banging, spun on her heel, and stormed past her brother who had made his way to the kitchen and was peering at her from the doorway like she was some strange zoo exhibit. Turning up her nose, she still refused to look at him. "Nothing. I'm not cooking anything. I'm going to bed."

She heard him trudge down the hallway after her.

"You're mad."

"No, I'm not!"

"..."

"I said, _No I'm not_!"

Setsu stormed into the bathroom, shut the door, and locked it. She paused, hands resting against the door behind her. Slowly, she raised her head to look at the reflection in the mirror. Her eyes looked as dull and lifeless as she felt.

Kyoko winced. She always had been better at lying with her voice than her expressions. With a heavy but quiet sigh, she ran her hands over her face.

Certainly, she'd had an intensely emotional rollercoaster of a day. First the news about her mother and that idiot Shotaro, then the scary encounter with Dark Ren… But that was no excuse. She was a pro. Mistakes were inexcusable, especially at this point in their mission.

However, she had messed up. Big time.

At the pier while Manaka was touching Tsuruga-san – being forward about her affection, openly clinging to him – Kyoko had felt a stab of... something that felt curiously like _jealousy_.

In the moment, she had instinctively under-reacted, withdrawing into herself for protection, just as she always had during her childhood whenever she would catch Sho with one of the other maids or when the Fuwas had announced his engagement to Mimori.

However, Setsu would have pouted excessively and openly! Now, Kyoko felt herself awkwardly trying to over-compensate, unable to stop herself from laying on the act thick. She needed to throw at least Ren off the scent of what was really going on through her mind. Maybe even throw herself off the scent, because after all, if it really had been _jealousy_ …

Jealousy was always inextricably bound to _want_. To _possession_. To _desire_.

Then that meant, toward Ren, she felt–!

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope!

It couldn't be jealousy. It was definitely… Setsu's protectiveness over her older brother! Her desire for monopoly of his closeness and affection, and – Wasn't that just jealousy? NO! That… that was Kyoko blending even more perfectly into character as Setsuka Heel!

In the mirror, Kyoko watched her eyes grow wide with pleasure as a self-satisfied, gleeful smile crossed her lips. Then she quickly remembered to wipe the very un-Setsu-like expression clean off her face.

While she was very excited that she was becoming more in sync with her character, creepy brother-complex notwithstanding, Agent M knew that from very subtle hints in their conversation with the Henshin agents that there was a high chance she and Agent T were being observed, even in their own apartment. In addition to the fact that someone had broken in just today to deliver the letter and package, that girl Manaka was a _surveillance expert_. Cameras or just microphones, Agent M had no way of knowing.

At least not until they had put in a request to Yashiro for some bug-detecting tools.

A soft knock sounded at the door, almost startling Kyoko.

"Setsu… Come out." Cain's voice came through the wood, muffled but contrite. Clearly, she could expect to face a pout with the strength of a whole litter of puppies once she exited the security of the bathroom.

Quickly turning to the mirror, she made sure that there was no evidence of her short episode out of character. No more dropping character! She was a professional, dammit!

Agent M spun, facing the door. Taking a deep breath in, then breathing out as she clasped a hand to her chest, she was Setsu. Cool, unfazed, even-keeled Setsu.

Setsu unlocked and opened the door.

Instantly, she was wrapped in a forceful embrace. Cain had rushed into the bathroom, crushing her in his strong arms as his hands gently wrapped around her cheek and neck. He began nuzzling her hair.

'S-S-Setsu's face!'

Meanwhile, Cain was murmuring his apologies into her hair, that he would never let any other woman touch him, that he was hers and only hers.

'P-Pro! You're a pro. You're a pro.'

Steeling herself, Kyoko regained control of her reaction and as Setsu, glared up at her brother. She sighed forcefully. "I said I'm not mad. Why would I be mad if Nii-san let that hamster drape itself all over him?"

She smiled coyly up at him. "But you're going to make it up to your cute little sister for your carelessness. Ne, Nii-san?"

At the realization that he had been forgiven, Cain's concerned expression became a small smirk.

"Hm. Of course."

Setsu was just about to suggest they get ready for bed, when Cain's smirk disappeared, replaced by a concentrated frown.

His normally strong baritone barely broke above a whisper as he murmured, "I have one more thing to make up to you, Setsu. I'm sorry for making you worry tonight."

"Nii-san–"

"No," Cain interrupted gently, placing a finger over her lips. Setsu felt as though his eyes were boring into her very soul. Kyoko fought not to look away. "You really helped me back there. It felt as though a demon had possessed me. But your voice brought me back to myself."

Internally, Kyoko stifled the immediate reaction of allowing her eyes to widen. The President had said that Tsuruga-san would be fighting his own demons. Her suspicions after speaking to him as Bo had been confirmed. Even the legendary Agent T had his own secrets and darkness as well…

Instead of acting surprised, Setsu simply reached up and grasped Cain's hand, stroking the back with her thumb. She treated him to her most sultry smile. "Well now. Demon-possession… That does sound quite mysterious and lovely. Almost poetic."

As she gently disentangled herself from Cain's arms, Setsu squeezed his hand and said with as much sincerity as her monotone voice could muster, "You can make up for the hamster, but don't worry about the other thing. I will always trust you, my silly brother."

For just a millisecond, Kyoko could have sworn that she saw a look of shock and relief and… _pain_ cross her senpai's face, before it was swallowed up in Cain Heel's heady smirk. Putting his reaction aside, Kyoko decided that even though Ren might have his secrets, and even though he insisted on having his characters torment her with overwhelming physical contact, Tsuruga Ren was still Tsuruga Ren.

And she would forever be his loyal kouhai.

 **-x-**

The man who climbed to the stage amidst the harsh flashbulbs of the frenzied media looked as though he had aged ten years since Kanae had seen him last. Once at the top of the podium, he turned grimly, as a condemned man turns to face his executioner, and addressed the audience.

"It is to my deep regret and shame that I announce my resignation from the Diet and subsequently my attempts at seeking the seat of Prime Minister of the honorable nation of Japan…"

On the television, the image of the man telescoped back into a small box in the upper right-hand corner as a middle-aged news anchor came back onto the main screen. He shuffled a stack of papers in front of him as the ruined politician's audio faded out.

"This was a clip from former Representative Goro Junya's concession speech earlier this afternoon, which has sent all of Japan reeling," the reporter stated in grim tones. "Goro-san's complete resignation from the Diet has come as a shock to many, despite the near universal acknowledgement that he should drop out of the race for Prime Minister."

The television cut to photo images of multiple spreadsheets of numbers. In the background, the news reporter's voice continued bleakly on.

"Around noon yesterday, a series of photos was posted by an anonymous source to the popular public online forum 2channel, which implicated the major opposition party's former PM candidate as well as several others within his party, in the promotion of a fraudulent charity fund that extorted billions of yen from wealthy patrons.

"After intense outcry from the public yesterday and today, the Democratic Party of Japan called a press conference this afternoon to have Goro-san announce not only his concession but also his complete resignation from politics. It is still unclear who the Democratic Party will put forward as their replacement candidate. With less than two months left before the scheduled PM elections, this has come as quite the shock to the political world of Japan.

"Now we have the minority party's Councillor Mogami Saena with us via satellite feed to comment on this stunning turn of events."

The screen split so that the anchor was on one side, and on the other was the impassive face of Mogami Saena. Irked, Kanae bristled a bit before settling down enough to actually comprehend what was coming out of the woman's mouth.

"Indeed, as you previously said, we in the Diet across all parties are shocked and dismayed at the actions of our colleagues. However, to say that former Representative Goro's complete resignation from the political world is unnecessary would be belittling his crime."

The anchor's eyes widened, and Kanae could almost see the glee behind his professional mask. Political candidates slinging mud was, after all, news _gold_.

"Councillor Mogami, please do share with us why you believe Goro-san's resignation is necessary."

"The political system in Japan is broken." Saena stared unwaveringly into the camera, her voice firm with conviction. "We need to root out the corrupt, the morally bankrupt, the inept, and start rebuilding from the ground floor. Yes… The Diet is broken, and it needs someone who can fix it."

"And do you believe that _you_ could be the one to fix it?"

"Yes I do. Prime Minister Ogata has done little to reform the corruption rampant within the Diet–."

"Now, I'd say that's enough of that, wouldn't you?" Asami Haruki's gentle but firm tone left no room for argument as she raised the remote and powered off the TV. Kanae watched as Saena's face winked out of existence.

Surprised not to hear the sound of weeping, the LoveMe girl turned from the living room's television to face her current boss. Prime Minister Ogata merely sat in his armchair, staring numbly at the floor as his three year-old son pretended his father's feet were a bridge to be run over with toy cars.

Kanae had been there earlier that day when Hiroaki had made his own official statement to the media about his colleagues' dealings. Even though the scandalized Diet members had not been a part of his own party, Ogata had still known every one of them as fellow politicians and colleagues. He had felt blind-sided and betrayed, but he had managed to put on an award-worthy act of confidence for the major news outlets.

However, seeing him sit in stunned silence, Kanae could tell that he was still shocked at this sudden turn of events. In the span of two days, his most worrisome competitor had essentially been snuffed off the face of the earth.

"I should have dissolved the House of Representatives earlier," Ogata whispered hollowly to himself. "But I only left it to the last minute like this because of all the bills we needed to pass… All the people we needed to help. Then the economy needed to recover… There was never a good time… And now– "

The LME agent watched as Asami-san slowly bent down to run a gentle hand through her husband's hair. The producer stooped to nudge her son to his feet, whispered something in the boy's ear, and then pointed to Kanae.

With a small sigh, the dark-haired personal assistant knelt to the ground and opened her arms barely a moment before Hirotaka came barreling into them. For a brief moment, Kanae had to resist the urge to hurl the young boy across the room. Over the months, she had learned how normal people "played" with small children. Her own family was just… special…

Kanae caught Asami mouthing a silent 'Sorry!' before turning back to console her husband.

"Kana-tan!" Hiro-kun giggled and waved his brightly colored toy car in her face. "Kana-tan, uhm, do you, uhm, do you want to play?"

Speaking in that eager yet halting way of young children, Hiro sent out a wave of cuteness that threatened to overpower Kanae's fortress of anti-family solitude.

"Urgh—!"

So this was how young Ogata Hirotaka had become the darling of Japan, Kanae thought grimly to herself for not the first time. Such a high-level boss for her to deal with on a daily basis…

To protect herself, she put on the smile of 'Kana-tan,' the bright and cheerful, child-loving caretaker who would absolutely _love_ to become a kindergarten teacher one day. The acting mask of her imaginary persona slipped on like a second skin.

"Maybe we can play a little bit while you brush your teeth, Hiro-kun," she said sunnily as she whisked the young boy from the living room and down the hall. "It's almost time for bed!"

As the young boy tried to convince her with his child-logic that tonight he didn't need a bath, Kanae thanked her stars that she could at least handle the overwhelming, tender cuteness of Hiro through acting. Though, Kanae thought, as she dutifully helped Hiro into the ofuro, it was becoming less of a mask, and more of her real self. She was growing rather attached to the young boy… and to the entire Ogata family too, for that matter

Curse that scheming President…

Lost in thought, Kanae almost didn't hear Hiro calling her name.

"Kana-tan?"

"Hmm?" The LME agent perked up, noticing that Hiro was peering up at her from under the fluffy towel on his head. She had apparently pulled him out of the bath and was drying him while on autopilot.

"Uhm…" The boy's brown eyes grew even wider, and he fidgeted with the toy car in his hands. "Uhm, Kana-tan… Is Otou-chan sad?"

Kanae sighed and hung the towel on the rack before reaching for the pajama onesie on the counter-top.

"Your father isn't sad… He – er…" The normally blunt agent tried to buy some time pretending to fiddle with the snaps on the pajamas. How on earth was she supposed to explain something like job security and politics and scandals to a three year-old?

"Not sad?" Hiro cocked his head to the side.

Finally managing to help the boy into his underwear and the onesie, Kanae sighed and held Hiro by the shoulders as she knelt on the bathroom floor. Meeting his concerned gaze, she said, "Hiro-kun… Sometimes, even for adults, life can be scary."

"Like monsters?"

Kanae shook her head slowly. "No… The things grown-ups are scared of are more invisible than monsters. Things like… bad feelings or bad things that can happen… The future."

Hiro closed his eyes and crossed his arms solemnly over his little chest, nodding with all the seriousness his toddler body could muster. "Oh… I see. Growed-up things."

Biting back a laugh at his gesture, which was an absolute mimic of Asami during meetings, Kanae replied to Hiro, "Yes… Grown-up things."

Hoping the matter was settled, she quickly rushed Hiro through the motions of brushing his teeth and then carried him to his bedroom. Seeing as it was almost an hour after his bedtime, the little boy was fading fast.

However, as Kanae had just finished tucking him in, Hiro chirped sleepily, "I don't get growed-ups… How can the future be scary?"

Smoothing the sheets under his hands, Kanae paused to think before saying, "It's not the future itself that's scary… It's what the adults make of it. But it can be scary because the future is not something that we can control."

'And adults can't stand not being in control,' Kanae added silently to herself.

"Uhm… But," Hiro began as his eyelids continued to droop. "But Otou-chan isn't afraid of anything!"

Three months ago, Kanae might have scoffed and plainly told the boy otherwise. But now, she just smiled, patted his head, and said, "No. No, he isn't."

 **-x-**

"Cutting it kind of close, aren't you?" The voice on the other end of the phone remarked tersely. "There are less than two months left."

Alone in his empty office, Delta almost sighed, instead choosing to run his free hand through his dark hair, smoothing it away from his forehead. His colleague had always been the impatient one, but that was just a minor cultural handicap. Albeit, an annoying one…

The voice on the phone continued, peevish. "Japan isn't like America. You don't have a fixed election schedule. The fact that it's gotten to the four year mark without a new Prime Minister is because you _allowed_ it."

Henshin's leader sighed. "Yes, it is true that we had the necessary votes to dissolve the Lower House and force this election sooner. But–"

"But you didn't," Alpha interrupted impatiently. "Because…?"

"Because," Henshin's leader pressed a hand to the bridge of his nose under his glasses, "Like you said, Japan isn't like America. It's not a popular vote. The people don't vote directly for the Prime Minister – they vote for the Lower and Upper House. Then the Diet elects the Prime Minister."  
"So?"

" _So_ ," Delta said slowly, wondering how many times he had explained this to Alpha, "I've been busy gathering pawns so we can get that vote in the Diet."

The voice on the other line scoffed. "Still seems pretty last-minute to me."

"Tell me, Alpha," the master spy retorted. "Why was Hitler so successful in his original campaign across Europe?"

The man on the other end of the phone audibly sighed, clearly exasperated. "I'm sure you're going to tell me."

"Blitzkrieg – 'Lightning War'," Delta said succinctly. "Despite his deplorable social atrocities, the man was smart. His generals moved with such swift and dominant surprise that they quickly overwhelmed the opposition, rendering an effective defense and counter-attack impossible."

"Heh, so your point is that you've been waiting until the last minute on purpose."

Delta felt a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth. Now his friend was getting the picture. Standing up from his high-backed, black leather chair, Henshin's leader made his way around his desk to the many large, flat-screened TVs mounted on the side wall of his office. On them played multiple news channels at once, all covering the biggest news story of the election so far – Goro Junya's scandal.

Delta watched in near smug satisfaction as one channel aired the end of the news conference. The ruined politician bowed deeply at the waist before marching brokenly off stage.

This would teach that arrogant piece of trash not to ignore Delta's generous offers. This would teach _all of them_ not to ignore his offers, because this was just the beginning.

"I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard." Alpha's voice held no pity. Only amusement.

"No, you don't," the Japanese mastermind retorted.

"You don't either."

"You, my good sir, would be absolutely correct," Delta intoned wryly. He reached forward to touch one of the screens that held several headshots of the disgraced Diet members, Goro's picture largest of all. At his touch, his fingertips sent opalescent ripples across the surface of the television, distorting Goro's face.

Delta smiled and murmured mostly to himself, "After all, trash will be trash. And they will all burn for it in the end."

 **-x-**

* * *

 **JAPANESE NOTES:**

 **2channel** – A popular internet forum in Japan; kind of similar to reddit.

 **Democratic Party of Japan** – This name choice was not a statement on the US Democratic party. The DPJ is just literally the 2nd largest political party in the Japanese Diet. The majority party at the moment is Shinzo Abe's party, the Liberal Democratic Party.

 **Dissolving the House of Representatives** – In the Diet, elections for the House of Councilors (Upper House) every three years. Elections for the House of Representatives (Lower House) occur whenever one of the following happens: the Prime Minister dissolves the Lower House, a motion of no confidence is passed by 50 members of the Lower House, or four years pass after the last election. After the Lower House is elected, both houses vote for a Prime Minister. Often it's the leader of whatever majority party was elected. Ogata is regretting not dissolving the House sooner, because he can sense that trouble is coming. Delta has had the necessary number of votes to dissolve the House due to a motion of no confidence, but has been biding his time/gaining followers.

 **Hirotaka** – The name of Ogata's famous father, who everyone compares him to and causes him trauma in the manga. However, after Ren reminds him that he is different from his father, Ogata gets over his hang-ups and even embraces his lineage. I'd like to think that if Ogata ever had a son, he'd be confident enough in himself and continue to admire his own father so much that he'd be very open to the idea of naming his own son after his father.

" **-tan"** – The "tan" suffix is kind of a cutesy, childish tag to end someone's name, unlike the formal "san" (ie Mogami-san, Tsuruga-san). The "tan" suffix is usually used by kids as "chan" is apparently more difficult for them to pronounce.

 **Ofuro** – Japanese bath

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **Brennakai** – Thanks! As for how they know about the Heels going back to the UK, as Kyoko mentioned in this chapter, Manaka _was_ introduced as a "surveillance expert". It wouldn't be unexpected if they had bugged the Heels' apartment.

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – NO WAY! Out of all the wines in Greece, I think I only tried the specialty Vinsanto wine on Santorini. It was definitely sweet, and quite alcoholic… Or maybe I'm just a huge light-weight. One glass on an empty stomach was enough to make me feel light-headed and relatively tipsy. Haha, probably just a light-weight here. Should've spent more of my college years upping my alcohol tolerance by drowning my liver in cheap beer. HAHA I hope your metaphorical potato chips are the good kind! ;) JK, really glad to hear you're enjoying the ride! And don't worry. One of my old accounts was under the name "Anrui" and when I explained to my Japanese teacher that it meant "silent tears", he told me that if I ever needed to talk about anything, he would listen. Lol, such an emo Japanophile teenager I was… *shudder* So all in all – don't worry! You're in good company!

 **Shizuhoe** – Hehe! Kyoko definitely had a reason to act differently than in the manga. Because at this point, she's starting to understand her feelings of jealousy – but is still trying to cover them up by essentially lying to herself. Hopefully this chapter shed a little bit more light on why Manaka is even initially a little more attached to Cain and how the Henshin agents know about the Heels heading back to the UK. Manaka has probably planted bugs in their apartment and has been surveilling them for quite some time! More on that later… And as for Kuon and Rick… Fufufu… We shall see~!

 **MWEH** – Totes agree that Ren needs to hurry the frick up and give Kyoko her White Day present! But considering how many chapters it took Kyoko to torment Ren (the day before V-day, he saw her chocolates for the Beagle and thought they were for Sho; the day of, she passes out chocolates to everyone but Ren, and even says that she didn't make any for him; she gets forcibly kissed by Sho in front of Ren – AND THEN she finally gives him the wine jelly). So… In some ways, this poor girl has had it coming. I think that Kimiko's gift is especially painful, though, because it's a pinky ring. In the Japanese culture, the gesture of holding out a pinky is used to refer to a boyfriend or girlfriend. (Like someone is asking, "Is that girl your _this_? - *holds out pinky finger*"). Thus the pinky ring implies that Kimiko is special to Ren or that he is implying that he likes her. I'm pretty sure Ren just got her that one because in his American-cultured mind, the pinky is the smallest and most insignificant finger. He's shown himself ignorant of colloquial Japanese phrases and culture before, and geez… What a doozy! Anyhoo, sorry. I rant… Thanks again for reading and reviewing MWEH! :D

 **Guest** – YES! Someone got the pun! Every time Manaka shows up, there's a collective "Oh no…" from everyone who reads the manga. hahaha

 **Guest** – Thanks for going out of your way to review, despite not having an account! I really appreciate any and all support!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Please don't forget to leave a fave, an alert, or a review! It's kind of like having someone drop some spare change in my guitar case… You know, if writing fanfiction were like a street musician busking… Haha**


	23. Chapter 23

Hello loyal readers,

We are past the 50 Faves and 100 Alerts and 150 Reviews mark! Thank every single one of you who went out of your way, took your precious time to leave a review or to add this story to your favorites/alerts list. Love you all! :D

Think of today's chapter like a music montage in a movie – there's a lot happening over a long period of time, but none of it is really important enough to draw out into multiple scenes. Get some Cain and Setsu goodness in this little lull period though!

 **As always, please don't forget to leave a review, a fave, or an alert! It really does mean the world to me and provides more motivation to finish this beast of a story I've created! Til next week!**

Happy reading!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH23**

For Kyoko, one and a half months passed in a blur. During that time, she and Ren continued their deep undercover mission as Setsu and Cain, slowly but surely gaining Konoe's trust through various assignments. However, despite showering the siblings with a surprising amount of money for their services, Delta never revealed himself, and his purposes remained a mystery.

Whenever Setsu would sarcastically remark that it was unsettling, doing so much work for an unseen face, Konoe would sheepishly laugh and apologize. That was just the way things worked in Henshin. Sometimes Delta would appear… if he deemed a particular employee skilled enough to take note of.

So for the time being, Chi and Sigma decided to keep their heads down and do the work expected of them. If their questions or actions ever piqued anyone's curiosity, all the Heel siblings had to do was to intensify the touchy-feely aspect of their act and scare any suspicious characters off their true trail.

Sometimes, Konoe would assign them to work together with other Henshin operatives. Once, they worked with Murasame Taira, or Tau as he was called in the field. Murasame mostly hurled insults at Cain… but from a distance. For the most part, Tau treated the bounty hunter with the same jumpy avoidance that one might treat a ticking time bomb.

More bothersome, however, were the times when the Heel siblings were tasked to work with Omicron, who although quite skilled at finding particular targets, would incessantly hang onto Cain like plastic cling-wrap. Much to Setsu's chagrin, Manaka had even taken to calling herself Cain's "little hamster", misunderstanding his verbal abuse as a beloved pet name.

However, for all her skill in surveilling, Manaka did not have a knack for keeping secrets. Just a couple of days after their acceptance into Henshin, it became quite apparent to both Heel siblings that as previously suspected, they were under near constant surveillance.

Apparently Delta wasn't the trusting type.

Through careful process of elimination and manipulation of conversation with Manaka, the double agents were able to discern that fortunately, there were only listening bugs in their apartment. Kyoko showered a lot more comfortably after that. However, Setsu's wig-care equipment and Cain's black hair dye still had to be carefully and cleverly hidden in a secret compartment that Agent T had jury-rigged under the sink.

Also, a week after confirming that there were indeed listening bugs, Yashiro had finally come through with the bug detector.

Every week, Cain would take a short walk to the local outdoor mall and purchase cigarettes from the vending machine outside the grocery store. He always got a pack of the same kind – Mevius Originals.

The pack would be full of cigarettes; however, if someone were to remove each of the cigarettes' outer wrappings, they would find an identical inner wrapping. Well, identical except for the nearly indiscernible lines of print dotted around the circumference, right under the orange filter line. Print which, when enlarged by a special magnifying app on Setsu's smart watch, would reveal weekly communications from LME. Most were responses to reports and requests that Ren had slipped into the special vending machine along with his money.

Sometimes, the box would contain a piece of tech, like a disguised wiretap to be wrapped around a bundle of cables at Omicron and Tau's flat. Or a signal jammer that would prevent outgoing or incoming phone calls and transmissions from being intercepted by nefarious groups. Or, in their most recent package, a bug detector that confirmed the location of four listening bugs in the apartment and one in the car. Fortunately, both of their phones were clean.

Instead of dismantling the bugs, the two agents had decided to keep them active to avoid drawing suspicion to themselves. Still, Kyoko had stashed the detector and jammer next to Ren's hair dye beneath the sink, just in case.

Almost every night, Kyoko wondered how her friends back at LME were faring. Particularly, she worried about how Kanae was doing. Agent M could, if she were desperate, dig out the jammer and just call her best friend; however it was to be used sparingly to avoid raising suspicion.

After all, Kanae's situation, though dire, was not quite that desperate yet. But it was close. Occasionally, Setsu would deign to flip on the news channel or browse online public forums. All news media was flooded with report after startling report of crooked politicians from this party or that who had committed fraud, adultery, or nepotism. This one had lied about graduating from Toudai; that one had supported a child pornography ring; the one over there had bribed a judge to throw an innocent man in prison.

Each report was just as, if not _more_ scandalous than the next. Some politicians bowed to the pressure and resigned from their posts as public officials. Others stubbornly refused, despite vocal and angry calls by the public. The online forums like 2channel were rife with accusations, rumors, and a general, growing discontent with the current "rotten to the core" government.

Even those within Ogata's party were not exempt from the scandals. Representative Takemura was one of the ones tenaciously hanging onto his position, despite allegations that he had pocketed campaign funds. His son, Ryuji – giant, slimy rat that he was – had been filmed buying date rape drugs out of a love hotel. However, thanks to Reino, Kyoko was not particularly shocked about that piece of information.

With each passing week, Agent M had started to see an alarming trend. Even though her mother was from a small minority party, she was swiftly gaining support and popularity. Despite her cold, no-nonsense demeanor, Saena was admittedly beautiful. And television heavily favored the beautiful – the beautiful and the underdog and the morally superior – which Saena, with her continuous promises to clean up the government, appeared to be.

The public ate it up. And what the public ate up, the other politicians leapt on like hungry wolves. Like rats abandoning a sinking ship, more and more "clean" politicians were making breaks with their current parties to join Saena's New Change Party.

Not a week went by where Kyoko wouldn't hear her mother's voice over the radio or see her face on the television or see articles about her on the internet. Cain would sometimes come up behind Setsu, snag the remote, and change the channel, stating that he found the news completely boring. The politics of a small, unimportant nation like Japan were of no concern to the Heels. From the apologetic look in his eyes, Kyoko knew that it wasn't a rebuke for bending her characterization. It was simply Ren's kindness to cut her off from torturing herself further with worry.

In fact, it was surprising that the President hadn't pulled her out. Saena's meteoric rise to power was so swift and unexpected that it was scary, if not suspicious. And if her mother was suspicious, then Kyoko herself was definitely a person of interest. But as the weeks ticked down into mere days before the election, there was no communication from Lory ordering Setsu to come "back to England".

Meanwhile, trying to block out the growing certainty that her mother had abandoned her in order to pursue political power, Agent M threw herself into her work. Fortunately and unfortunately, much of that work consisted of housing with Tsuruga Ren.

Throughout their time sharing the apartment (she refused to call it 'living together'), Kyoko felt that she had grown to know Ren much better. Where Cain Heel was a scaffolding of personality and backstory, Ren had filled in quite a bit of the blanks with himself. Kyoko learned that, contrary to his assumed gentleman persona, Tsuruga Ren was a bit of a diva, was the pickiest eater she had ever come across, and could be as petulant as a spoiled child. But he was also gentle and caring.

He waited for her to eat meals, carried the shopping bags whenever they went out, and during assignments, frequently placed himself in harm's way to save her. In particular, Kyoko had been catching Ren in moments where he slipped out of character because he was just… staring at her. Staring while smiling his bright, demon-purifying Genuine Smile.

For some reason unknown to her, Kyoko had stopped reacting like she was being hit with an RPG and had begun _blushing_ and her heart started _pounding_. Maybe she had just been getting sick… Hopefully it was just getting sick.

However those little pockets of Ren's gentleness were interspersed with moments of strange darkness as well. Sometimes, after returning from a particularly intense mission where he actually had to capture someone and leave a body behind per Black Jack's M.O., Cain would return home, shoulders tense and a dark look on his face, and would lock himself in the room or bathroom for hours.

The first time it happened, he hadn't locked the door, and after hearing the water continuing to run for almost an hour, Agent M had barged in, sure that something had happened to him.

They had weathered that storm, mostly in character, but Ren locked the door after that.

During those long hours of waiting for Agent T to reemerge, Kyoko took to wondering. Reino then Murasame… Also there was that time where Ren had confided to Bo that he could never have someone he loved. Tsuruga Ren was a complicated man, to be sure, but she couldn't help the feeling that he was hiding something very important from her.

Her heart would clench at that thought, and she would remind herself of the President's advice. Just play along, continue on as Setsu, and Ren would come around on his own. Then a little voice in the back of her mind would wonder what would happen if the day ever arrived where he _didn't_ come back on his own…

However, fortunately not adding to her worries, that stupid Shotaro was apparently still alive. She had decided that worrying about him was a bother, but still couldn't deny feeling a little, teeny-tiny bit of relief – notbecause he was actually safe. Really, Kyoko felt relieved because if he were _dead_ , then she would never get her revenge on him!

She had found out about Sho through cigarette communications from Momose Itsumi – two communications to be precise. The first one was a request for permission to send Kyoko a message from Sho – which was swiftly denied. Curiously, Ren had made a point to buy cigarettes twice that week, just so he could deliver that message sooner. The second had come just a few days before the end of the month: a courtesy update that all was well, and a notice that they would be traveling soon to Yokohama for business.

Kyoko had bristled at that before quickly calming herself. There was no way that Setsu would ever run into the hotel heir in a huge city like Yokohama. Still, Cain had emphatically asked Setsu if she wanted to stay in for a few days. They had just finished a week-long assignment for Konoe, and Cain said she looked like she needed the rest.

Kyoko took the out gratefully. Cain, she thought, had looked oddly pleased.

However, their day was anything but restful.

On the morning that Momose had specified, Setsu found herself in their apartment's kitchen, dozing in front of the toaster. Yesterday had been yet another sleepless night for Kyoko. Her tired mind berated her for not being able to adapt to sleeping beside Ren – no, Cain.

They were now sharing a bed more nights than not. While Cain always slept with at least one layer of blankets between them, s-s-snuggling was not an uncommon occurrence.

But, a small logical portion of her mind asked, was this what brothers were really like? Affectionate and doting to an absolutely irresponsible degree? Was this level of physical affection normal?

Kyoko didn't think so – but the only "brother" figure that she'd ever had had been Shotaro. And he had messed up her perception of quite a few things. Additionally, the Heel siblings were far from "normal" any way you looked at it.

The toast popped up at that moment with a mechanical _ding_ , and Kyoko had to stifle a surprised squeak.

"Setsu."

A second shriek of surprise that threatened to burble up from the back of her throat had to be violently suppressed. Kyoko whacked the countertop in lieu of screaming. After a moment's pause, she turned back to Cain with Setsu's cool expression. "Yeah, Nii-san?"

"I'm done. The shower is yours."

As Setsu turned, the younger Heel sibling was forcibly shoved to the back of Kyoko's mind as the LoveMe girl fought the urge to scream a third time. Ren – no, _Cain_! – was standing outside the kitchen door with just a towel wrapped around his waist. Dark hair fell over his eyes in wet locks, and Kyoko couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the droplets of moisture that collected in his collarbone and dappled across his broad chest.

"Setsu?"

"Nothing," Setsu quickly – too quickly – said and turned back to the toast. Toast had never seemed so fascinating. Oh, amazing toast. Why oh why couldn't toast be plucked more slowly from a toaster?

Or rather, getting to the source of her problem, why couldn't Cain go and put a shirt on!

To her mounting horror, she heard shuffling steps as Cain entered the kitchen. Unable to control her reaction this time, Kyoko stiffened as she sensed Ren hovering just behind her – not actually touching her, but just near enough that she could feel the heat from the shower pouring off his body in gentle tendrils.

"Hm. Toast again?" Cain asked.

Trying desperately to summon Setsu's voice and praying that her partner wouldn't notice the flush creeping up the back of her neck, Kyoko replied, "That's because Nii-san hasn't taken me grocery shopping in a week."

"I would take you today, but…"

But Shotaro. Kyoko thoughts instantly turned murderously dark.

Instead, Cain finished with, "But I just want to spend time with you."

Like a Mortal Kombat duel, Kyoko could have sworn she heard some dramatic disembodied voice shout, 'Finish her!' At that moment, Cain wrapped his arms around her shoulders, nuzzling his face into the back of her neck.

A high-pitched sound like a boiling teakettle attempted to escape from Kyoko's mouth.

For a moment, Kyoko could have sworn that she was unsuccessful in muffling her noise. There indeed was a high-pitched sound ringing in the air. However, after a moment of pause and to her good fortune, Kyoko realized that the sound was not coming from her.

Cain had perked up as well, disentangling his arms from around her shoulders, and cocking his head to the side. Without a word, he strode quickly out of the kitchen. Agent M followed closely on his heels as he entered the still steamy bathroom. The high-pitched noise was louder inside the bathroom, and only increased as Agent T jimmied free the secret compartment under the sink.

After fishing around, he pulled out the signal jammer. The jammer was emitting a high-frequency tone. Flipping the small, black box over in his hand, Agent T found the screen readout on the side. After a moment of skimming the message, he silently raised the box so Agent M could read.

"T & M – Cnnt cntct Kjma and Mmse. Bng jmmd. U 2 only oprtvs in area. Safe Rm 106: clths + spplies + coordntes. Cnfrm tech mlfnctn or prvd bck-up if ncssry. – Y"

Kyoko felt the air leave her lungs. Yashiro was requesting emergency back-up for Kijima and Itsumi. The fact that the techie was even contacting them while they were deep undercover indicated how dire the situation was. Despite Yashiro's caveat that it might just be equipment malfunction, Kyoko knew that simultaneous comm link failure usually meant only one thing: sabotage.

And since it was Kijima and Momose, that meant the saboteur's target was probably _that_ idiot.

Biting back a huff, Setsu glanced up at Cain who seemed surprisingly impassive, as if he were waiting for her reaction.

Gathering her willpower, Kyoko flashed her most Setsu-like smile at Cain. "I can't let Nii-san be lazy all day. Let's go grocery shopping."

With a grim nod, Cain hurriedly left to put his clothes on.

Reading the text on the jammer's readout one more time, Kyoko grit her teeth. This was the worst. She was going to have to go save Shotaro.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **NOTES:**

 **Toudai –** Tokyo University is basically THE most prestigious university in Japan.

 **RPG** – Rocket-propelled grenade

Also, just in case you couldn't understand Yashiro's short-hand in the message, it reads: "Cannot contact Kijima and Momose. Being jammed. You two are the only operatives in the area. Safe Room 106 has clothes, supplies, and coordinates. Confirm technology malfunction or provide back-up if necessary."

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **MWEH** – The chapter's still not up for this month… But I read some translation notes and apparently in this new chapter we learn that (SPOILER) Kimiko is essentially a pathological liar? So… Maybe the ring wasn't even from Ren at all! I'm getting the sense though that maybe Kimiko wasn't the one who caused Erika's accident? Kimiko seems like the manipulative type, but not the type to cause physical harm. I dunno – maybe we won't be going much further down the rabbit hole. Thanks as always for the review! And lord willing, I shall continue to keep the chapters coming!

 **Brennakai** – Thanks! I find that writing for the Skip Beat characters in general can be kind of difficult because even though some of them are kind of extreme (Kyoko), they're mostly normal. It's been a wild ride trying to transplant them into this very different world, but still keep the essence and certain plot highlights of the cannon story. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review! And double, triple thanks for the job search encouragement!

 **Aikori Ichijouji –** Yay! I'm glad that you're liking the suspense! I admit that today's chapter was a bit of a lull before things pick back up again. Hopefully it was a little "wabi and sabi" before the thriller action scenes come back in full force haha. Thanks for the congrats and well-wishes! Ugh… I hate real life… Jobs… This is why I hid away in school for so many years… Thanks for the encouragement though!

 **Shizuhoe –** Hehe will Kyoko recognize her feelings soon? Perhaps she just needs a little push… Or maybe just a huge shove. Haha, either way, happy to report that I just finished polishing that chapter off. It will be coming… eventually! ;) And yeah! I think that Kanae deserves some "forced treatment" courtesy of the President's meddling too! Thanks for the congrats and the encouragement with the job hunt! It's been daunting (mostly because I'm being picky), but hoping for the best! Thanks!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Please don't forget to leave a review, a fave, or an alert! It really does mean the world to me and provides more motivation to finish this beast of a story I've created! Til next week!**


	24. Chapter 24

Hello loyal readers!

Sorry for skipping a week, but I've been busy this week with paperwork for my NEW JOB! It was honestly such a blessing because it was the exact specialty and location that I wanted. Thanks for everyone who wished me well! Extra long chapter today for you patient peeps~!

Today, Kanako dies, Sho has regrets, and there's a fight with a familiar rival.

Hope you all enjoy!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH24**

Sho sighed and nursed his latte. The café was cute enough, sure, with the hanging vines and cast-iron gated patio area. His drink had even come with the milk foam on top drawn in the shape of a cartoon bear. It was technically the perfect spot for a date with a girl like Kyo– er, _Kanako_. The café wasn't his typical dating scene, but then again, Kanako wasn't his typical date.

Sexy? Nope. Buxom? Nada. Sultry? Not at all.

So why was he so interested in her?

No, there was no more wondering why he had agreed to meet Kanako today or any of the other handful of times he had seen her in the past two months. Unbidden, Shoko's words sprang to mind.

 _"Isn't it just wish fulfillment?"_ His assistant had asked. _"Aren't you only interested in this Morishige Kanako because she reminds you of Kyoko?"_

After all, wasn't that also the reason that he was here in Yokohama in the first place?

Kyoko.

One eavesdropped comment from Kijima about his childhood friend's location, and Sho had made up a paper-thin excuse to his father that he wanted to tour their hotels along Yokohama Bay. Shoko repeatedly told him it was illogical. Sho couldn't possibly expect to just run into Kyoko at random, especially while she was working.

And it _was_ illogical – he _knew_ it was illogical.

Despite how vehemently he denied it, in his heart, he knew that Shoko was right. After almost three months, Sho was ready to admit it to himself.

He had royally screwed up.

For the sake of his pride, he had sacrificed the one girl who cared for him beyond the fortune and the face – the one girl who knew him better than he even knew himself. He was an idiot, and he wanted to tell her, to apologize, to make things go back to the way they were.

But his plea to send a message to her through Momose had gone unanswered.

Maybe Kyoko had forgotten all about Fuwa Sho… That thought had haunted him for many a sleepless night.

Therefore, when Kanako had messaged him a week after the incident at the coffee shop, he had gone on a date with her. Then another date and then another.

Today, after reporting that she was coincidentally also in Yokohama visiting the pier's theme park with some friends, Kanako had asked him if he wanted to meet up. Sho had said yes. He had even researched and chosen this café on his own.

Sho sighed quietly to himself. Maybe Shoko was right; it was wish fulfillment… Maybe he wasn't being very fair to Kanako. Maybe he was taking advantage of the girl to satisfy his own selfishness.

Again. Way to go, Fuwa.

Trying to shake off his feeling of brooding, Sho glanced to his left where Kijima and Momose sat at a separate table, looking very much like a couple out on a date. Despite their squabbles while on bodyguard duty, Sho had to admit that the partners put on quite the convincing act when covert.

Today, Shoko had stayed at the hotel to work on business that Sho would otherwise leave unfinished due to his last-minute date. Though the personal assistant hadn't fully agreed with his motives, Shoko supported him in her own way. She had even promised Sho that she wouldn't tell his father or Mimori about his dates with Kanako.

Despite his gloomy thoughts, the day was looking up. For once, he hadn't run across any bad luck at all. No slips or trips or spills. Apparently, the universe agreed with the idea of him meeting with Kanako.

Then the sound of shouting broke through his reverie.

Sho snapped his head up, noticing that Kijima and Momose had risen from their seats. They were staring off at the street beyond the patio. Sho followed their gazes, then immediately flew to his feet.

On the sidewalk outside the restaurant, a man wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a cold mask was wrenching a purse strap from the desperate grasp of a young woman with long, black hair. As the man roughly shoved the woman to the ground, Sho realized.

Kanako was getting her purse snatched.

"Hey asshole!"

Before he could even form a rational thought, Sho found himself sprinting forward on instinct. From some part of his mind, he could hear his LME bodyguards shouting at him as he vaulted over the cast-iron fence and hit the sidewalk running.

Kanako had run off after the purse-snatcher, down the sidewalk. The chase was scattering startled pedestrians in its wake. Sho followed after in hot pursuit, glad that Shoko had provided a casual outfit for this outing. It was much easier running in jeans and a t-shirt than in a suit. He heard shouting behind him but refused to turn around.

Far ahead, the thief swerved around the corner of a busy ramen restaurant, ducking into a small alley behind the building. Kanako followed, yelling after him as she disappeared around the corner.

Sho cursed and tried to put on an extra burst of speed, his legs aching in protest.

As soon as he turned the corner, he noticed Kanako farther ahead down the alleyway. The thief was nowhere in sight. However, Kanako was standing stock-still, turned to the side, eyes wide.

Sho almost skid to a halt in surprise.

Then he saw the truck.

Time seemed to slow down. It was a large white delivery truck, just coming into view around the corner of the alleyway. The alley had melded seamlessly into a narrow side street that lay perpendicular to the alley.

On the street, her long black hair and white shirt billowing back in the wind, stood Kanako. She appeared frozen, like a deer locked in front of a pair of onrushing headlights.

Unbeknownst to him, Sho shouted, "Kyoko!"

On reflex, his legs sped up, fueled by a rush of adrenaline. He was almost to the street, hand outstretched to push her out of the way. Almost there…

Then… Sho tripped.

Time rushed back in a ragged wave. He plummeted to the floor. The ground knocked the wind out of him. His fingertips lay just shy of the road. A roar of air and sound and exhaust fumes buffeted him as the truck flew past.

The next moment stretched on in silent shock.

Then Sho scrambled to his feet. Desperate, his eyes darted about the road for the broken body of a young woman. A young woman he had failed.

Nothing. No body. No blood.

"Kanako? Kanako!"

Panicked and confused, Sho staggered across the street to the other side of the alleyway, shouting her name as he went. He felt hot, frustrated tears sting the corners of his eyes as his heart sank with each passing moment.

"Dammit!" Sho cursed, angrily pounding his fist into the alley's brick wall.

He had failed her. Again.

"Really?"

At the young woman's voice, Sho whirled around. Kanako stepped out of the shadow of a nearby building. She was alive! Relieved, Sho started forward. Then he faltered, confused. Not only was she in one piece, but she also seemed… annoyed?

Gone was the polite, smiling gentleness of Kanako. She wore the same clothes – white shirt and denim shorts – but Sho could hardly say she looked like the same person; her demeanor was entirely different. Kanao rolled her eyes and placed a fist on one cocked hip.

"Really?" She repeated and sighed in exasperation. "I spend all this time and effort to make it look like you got hit by a truck, and you just trip and avoid it? How anti-climactic."

Confused, Sho took a hesitant step back. Nothing the girl was saying was making any sense. "W-What?"

Shaking her head, the dark-haired girl strolled forward. "Oh well… I guess Plan B is just as good."

Nonchalantly, she reached into the waistband of her shorts and pulled out a knife. The cruelly curved blade was roughly hand-length, and it gleamed in the dim lighting of the alley. It was an object shrouded in numb unreality – one that Sho was used to only seeing in movies. He would have been just as shocked if she had pulled out a snake instead.

"K-Kanako-chan…?"

"It's a shame really," the girl mused as she advanced. She flipped the curved knife up in the air and deftly caught it by the leather grip. "The newspapers are going to paint you a hero."

Her dark brown eyes glinted with malice, and for the first time that day, Sho noted from some far corner of his mind that her eyes were no longer their warm, familiar amber.

"I can just imagine the headlines, can't you?" The girl raised a hand and roughly caught Sho by the chin, her nails digging into his skin. She crooned mockingly, "'Man chasing purse snatcher found stabbed to death.'"

She giggled and rolled her eyes. "What a bunch of bull. That's much more noble than your pathetic existence has warranted, I'm sure."

"Ka-Kanako? What–?"

Looking him straight in the eye, her hand still holding his face in her talon-like grip, Kanako smirked. She let her eyes grow wide and innocent as she assumed a cutesy pose. Raising her voice an octave, she said in a cloyingly sweet voice, "Sho-chan, want to go grab coffee with me?"

For a moment, Sho frighteningly saw a glimpse of the Kanako he had gotten to know. Then the familiarity faded away as the cold, angry stranger melded back onto the young woman's face. She barked a short, bemused laugh. "As if."

Shoving his chin aside, Kanako stepped back and raised her hand to her head, carding her fingers through the straight, dark hair. Then she yanked, and with a flourish, removed what appeared to be a wig from her head.

Sho felt his eyes widen. The girl was shaking out long, curled brunette hair. She was still talking but he could scarcely hear her. His feet were finally working, and he began to edge back from her in small, shaky steps.

"I tried a couple of other disguises, but you just looked right through me." Letting the wig drop to the ground, the woman regarded the heir with a sneer. "But some research into your past turned up your little childhood friend."

'Kyoko?' Sho felt his heart leap in panic as he continued to back away.

"Did you two have a falling out? I heard, she left you for another employer." The woman sighed. "You're as transparent as a sheet of glass, really. You miss her so much that you were completely fooled by my disguise. Hook, line, and sinker."

Sho grit his teeth, wanting to throw an insult back at her – whoever she was – but she was right. He had no defense.

"What a chump." As if she knew his thoughts, the young woman grinned maliciously. She began to stalk forward yet again. Her knife glinted in the alley's dim light. "Really, it's a shame you're never going to get a chance to tell her how much you cared."

'As if, you bitch,' Sho thought vindictively. Instead, he let his eyes go wide as his gaze flickered behind Kanako down the alleyway. He shouted as loudly as he could, "HEY!"

As the girl spun to look behind her, Sho quickly turned on his heel and began to sprint down the alley in the opposite direction.

For a moment, he thought he would get away. He was taller and most likely faster than she was, especially with the added lead he'd gained with his miniature distraction.

Then a bright flash of pain tore through his ankle. Sho cried out and tried to ignore the stabbing pangs, but the next step sent him toppling to the ground.

White-hot pain seared through his leg, and when Sho tried to scramble to his feet, blood dribbled to the sidewalk from his left ankle. His left foot refused to move and support his weight, and he fell again, hands striking the pavement. Past the pain, he dimly wondered if she had thrown the knife, cutting some muscle or tendon on the back of his foot.

Behind him, he heard the brunette woman giggle again. His blood ran cold.

"I guess you can say that girl Kyoko was your _Achilles heel_!"

Gritting his teeth, Sho flipped himself onto his back, working with great effort to move into a sitting position. He watched with growing dread as the woman leisurely stooped to pick up her thrown weapon. She expertly flicked the knife, sending the blood splattering in an arc and cleaning the blade.

Desperate, Sho attempted to crabwalk backwards, his lame foot dragging along the ground. But with a desperate, sinking feeling, he knew that he would never be able to outrun her now.

"Now, if you don't mind," the woman said in a business-like tone, "I have a schedule to keep. My boys can't keep those LME nitwits occupied forever."

Without warning, she ruthlessly stomped on Sho's wounded ankle. He cried out as a flash of disorienting pain rent through his mind, and before he knew it, he was being dragged up from the ground by a surprisingly strong grip.

Sho grimaced as the girl sneered into his face, knife pressed to his stomach.

"Just do us all a favor and die already!"

Sho closed his eyes, bracing himself for the pain. In his last moments, he would have thought that his mind would turn to regret. Regret for not pursuing a career in music, for not breaking away from his father, for not gaining popularity and fame by his own merit.

But the last thing he thought of were a pair of familiar, comforting amber eyes.

Then he heard someone shout – "Get away from him!"

His eyes flew open. "Kyoko?!"

 **-x-**

With a furious roar, Kyoko leapt and used her downward momentum to fling several throwing daggers at the girl holding Sho. Agent M's eyes widened in surprise as the brunette promptly dropped Sho and dodge-rolled out of the way of the projectiles. The knives clattered harmlessly against the brick wall around the hotel heir.

A pro?

Either crazy or a pro – the girl was rushing forward with her own knife.

Shifting her stance mid-jump, Kyoko landed and deftly performed a backflip, alighting just outside the range of the young woman's knife swipe. Fortunately for Agent M, the black jumpsuit and boots she had gotten from the safe house were much easier to move around than her Setsu disguise.

The knife just barely missed grazing her abdomen. But the brunette advanced, driving Agent M back with short, controlled slices of her weapon.

In the narrow alley, Kyoko ducked, leapt, then performed a back handspring, aiming to use her legs' momentum to kick the weapon out of her enemy's hands. This time, the other girl wasn't able to dodge fast enough, and Kyoko heard her boots connect with the girl's arm with a satisfying _twhack_. The knife clattered uselessly to the floor.

The other young woman yelped, staggering back as Kyoko used her opponent's surprise and lack of weapon as an opening to close the distance between them. She dashed in, fist raised to perform a quick rabbit punch to the girl's temple.

But suddenly, she felt her hand batted away, and a swift flash of pain swept up through her midsection. Agent M stumbled away, cradling her bruised ribs. The girl had blocked her strike, using the opening to kick her in the chest.

This girl was definitely a pro.

"Hah!" Her opponent barked, raising an open palm and twitching her fingers in a 'Come on!' motion. "Uesugi-style? That's nostalgic. You're going to have to do better than that!"

Eyes narrowed, Kyoko lowered her center of gravity and dashed forward again, leaping over the leg sweep she saw coming from a mile away – but barely dodging the throwing dagger the girl hurled from below. The girl had probably picked up one of Kyoko's from earlier.

Landing, Agent M immediately spun behind her in a reverse roundhouse kick, which the other girl blocked. Kyoko ducked under the girl's responding reverse roundhouse.

Deciding to change tactics, Agent M twisted to avoid her assailant's cross-body jab. Kyoko grabbed ahold of the girl's arm with one hand and shirt with the other, using her twisted form and the girl's momentum to perform an aikido throw.

That didn't quite go as planned, as the mysterious brunette shifted unexpectedly during the throw, kicking off the side of the narrow alley and snagging Agent M's own arm and the front of her black jumpsuit. The girl had copied her move and was trying to use her own momentum to throw Kyoko instead!

Quick – like a flash – Kyoko used a move Agent T taught her. Simultaneously while slipping her wrist sideways from the girl's grip, Agent M spun harshly backward, breaking the girl's hold on her clothing.

After a moment of silence broken only by harsh breathing, the two opponents leapt back from each other. They were evenly matched in hand-to-hand.

Not taking her eyes off the other girl, Kyoko brought a hand up to her cheek. It was wet and stung. Most likely it was bleeding. She hadn't been able to fully dodge the throwing dagger after all.

Unfortunately, Kyoko knew that she couldn't bring out her gun. That would prompt her opponent to do so as well – she was surely armed – and if a firefight ensued, that Sho-baka might get struck by a ricochet.

"Hey!" Sho's voice sounded weak and gravelly with what Kyoko assumed was pain, judging by the puddle of blood on the flood. "Just run away!"

"Shut up, you idiot," Kyoko snapped, her eyes not leaving her opponent in front of her.

"LME, I'm guessing?" The other girl sniped and flipped her hair behind her. "Why else would you try to protect an idiot like this?"

Before Kyoko could stop herself, the words had flown from her lips, "Because, I can't get revenge on him if he's dead!"

Her enemy's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in barely suppressed laughter. Kyoko crouched farther down, suspicious. Instead the girl merely giggled as if Kyoko had told a hilarious joke. "Oh~? So _you're_ his childhood friend?"

Kyoko felt a surge of panic rise in the back of her throat. How did this girl know?

"Revenge?" The other girl continued on, hiding her smirk behind one hand. "Is that why you left him? You know, you look a lot different than the pictures of you."

Kyoko refused to acknowledge the information. Just let the other girl stall…

"Why revenge?" The mysterious young woman paused to pat a mocking finger to her cheek. Then her brown eyes widened again. "Oh, I get it! You _liked_ him!"

To hell with stalling! Unable to help herself, Kyoko growled in frustration and ran forward again. "Shut up!"

The other girl merely dodged and danced away from Agent M's strike. "You _did_ like him!" She crowed, thoroughly amused. "And what?"

The girl dramatically placed her hands over her chest, pretending to pout. "Did he break your little heart?"

Enraged, Kyoko rushed forward again. This time, the other girl grinned, blocked her series of kicks, and when the LME agent's guard was down, spun and sent Kyoko flying back, gagging from the ruthless knee strike to her gut.

Panting, Agent M staggered to her feet, clutching her abdomen. She knew that it was a tactic. The other girl was just trying to make her mad and sloppy. But dammit! That girl was doing a very, very good job!

Not helping the problem, Shotaro was yelling at her from the other end of the alley to run away. And that was just making her _more_ angry. How cocky did that wounded idiot have to be in order to think that he'd survive at all if it weren't for her distracting his assassin!

Good thing the cavalry was almost here.

As if right on cue, Kyoko heard a pair of boots pound up the pavement behind her.

"M-san!"

One glance back at her partner showed that Agent T had fared much better than she had. His opponent had been the guy guarding the entrance to the alleyway who was dressed like a pretty obvious purse-snatcher – most likely just a hired lackey.

Agent M expected her senior partner to take command of the situation and immediately tell her the attack strategy pattern he wanted to use.

However, as Agent T drew closer, Kyoko heard his steps begin to abruptly slow and then falter.

"Well, well… If it isn't Agent T…" The young woman smirked coyly at Ren. "Replaced me with a new partner already? After all we'd been through together, I'm a bit insulted."

Kyoko stiffened. "New partner?"

She had heard from Yashiro and Maria that Ren had only had one permanent partner before her and that the partnership had ended poorly. Kyoko took a chance and stole a glance at her senpai. He seemed to be frozen in shock.

"How ironic, T-san." The other girl laughed wryly, "Your new partner is an M-san as well?"

"As well?" Kyoko couldn't help but parrot in confusion.

"Oh? Agent T never told you?" Finally acknowledging Kyoko's questions, the mysterious brunette turned back to her, a malicious smirk on her face. "I am the original Agent M."

Kyoko felt as if all the air had left her body.

Beside her, she heard gravel crunch on the pavement as Agent T shifted into a fighting stance.

"Morizumi Kimiko…" Ren growled in his deep baritone, his voice flat and cold. Kyoko glanced up at him again. Gentleman persona discarded, he was glaring openly at the girl across the alley. "I thought that Yamashita's assassin seemed familiar. What happened to retiring from field work to become a nice housewife?"

"Actually, Ren-kun," the other girl said casually, but settled her stance a little lower, just in case Agent T tried something, "I go by the name Kappa now –"

Kyoko felt her eyes widen. Kappa – that was a Greek letter, right? Did that mean this girl was a part of Henshin?

"But really, Ren-kun, did you honestly expect me to sit quietly and get married to a nice, boring salaryman?" Kappa gave a longing sigh. "You've ruined me for life. Who else could possibly measure up to you? As a boyfriend? ...As a lover?"

If Kyoko had chosen to look up at Ren at that moment, she would have seen the wide-eyed look of panic he shot down at his current kouhai. However, Kyoko was too preoccupied with her own thoughts and emotions, which had seemed at that moment to uncontrollably and spontaneously combust.

Time slowed to a painful crawl as all Kyoko could think, over and over again, were the echo of Morizumi Kimiko's words – _"I am the original Agent M… Replaced me with a new partner… You've ruined me for life… A boyfriend… A lover…"_

From some far removed part of her mind, Kyoko heard Ren snap sharply – much more sharply than usual for him – "You know those were just cover stories, Morizumi-san. Nothing more. We never did anything."

"Are you sure they were?" Kimiko replied, voice coy. "I could have sworn you felt something back…"

Kyoko resurfaced from her thoughts just in time to hear Agent T say sternly, "Enough. It's time for you to come with us, Morizumi-san."

Kappa barked a short, bitter laugh. "I don't think so."

Narrowing her eyes and sliding her hand to the back of her belt to reach for her gun, Kyoko silently prepared herself for action.

Instead Kimiko just winked and blew Ren a kiss. "I'll catch you some day, Ren-kun. Don't forget... I always get what I want."

With a malicious grin and a flick of her wrist, Kappa threw something at the ground. A bright light and a loud noise assaulted Kyoko's senses.

When the dancing spots across her vision and the ringing in her ears cleared, Kyoko saw to her frustration that the ex-LME agent was gone.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **PSYYYYYYYYCH!** Did I fake any of you out with my author's note at the beginning about Kanako's death? Can't believe everything you read on the internet ;) Who else guessed that SHE was Kappa? I think there were a couple of you who called it in the comments. Bravo!

 **Japanese Notes:**

 **Purse-snatchers –** It might just be an overused trope, but suspicious people in Japanese media always seem to be wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a cold/flu mask.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **Shizuhoe –** You got it! Chi = Cain and Sigma = Setsu. I'm so lucky that I didn't have any other character using those greek letters since the beginning of the story. I must admit that I didn't plan that far ahead. Heehee… Oops! And that is a good point; Kyoko would indeed have rationalized that Cain was looking at Setsu and not Ren at _her_. Thanks as always Shizuhoe! :)

 **MWEH** – I'm pretty sure we get a chapter every month! There was a 2 month gap a couple (?) months ago because Nakamura-sensei was taking a long overdue vacation. Fortunately, we got a chapter this month, because last chapter was a huge cliffie! Your last comment made me LOL. Indeed, only Kyoko would consider falling in love a sickness!

 **Cheshire2313** – Wow! Thank you so much for the multiple reviews! It's such a privilege to get not only one review but reviews for multiple chapters! I'm really glad that someone finds me funny :,) I've seen most of RWBY Season 1, but stopped watching Season 2. Let me go rewatch the 2.1 opening! As for Delta knowing whether Saena has a daughter, he doesn't! Hence, he's never brought it up. Good question! As for Kimiko, ironically, she's just adding fuel to Kyoko's "Momiji" characterization. After all, Momiji is someone who is in love with a man who does not return her feelings and dotes on another girl. Sounds just like the situation Kimiko is setting up! I can't wait either for Kimiko to get her due… Many of the characters Sensei writes are not pure evil; even Ruriko, Erika, Chiori, and Saena started out as "malicious" characters, but were humanized and shown to have redeeming qualities over time. However! I really, really, really don't like Kimiko and hope she's as straight-forwardly immature and evil as she seems just so her eventual fall will be all the more satisfying. :3 And don't worry! Kyoko is going to address the promise/bet between her and Sho very, very soon… Won't resolve it completely, but that's not going to be the point of the bet. ;)

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – LOL! Your comment was hilarious! It may indeed be a crime to cover it up… ;) I'm really glad that the montage format wasn't too heavy on exposition… It was a LOT of exposition. Haha Just curious, after this chapter, do you still want Sho not to be rescued? Thanks Aikori!

 **brennakai** – Over 20 chapters… You're right! I was looking at the stats the other day, and I realized that this is by far the longest story I've ever written. My Word document is actually starting to lag whenever I first load it up! So many pages! Welcome for the story! Thank YOU for continuing to read it and provide feedback!

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 **If you liked what you read (or even if you didn't), don't forget to add an alert, a fave, or a review. It really does make a difference! Love you guys!**


	25. Chapter 25

Hello loyal readers,

I was debating whether to post the upcoming chapter today or next week. There are a lot of… emotions, and I wanted to make sure I nailed all of the characters' thoughts and motives and reactions. I think I've been over this chapter more times than any other that I've written so far, and even up until now, I'm still making minor tweaks here and there. I still don't think it's perfect, but then again maybe like the emotions portrayed, it's supposed to be slightly messy and unresolved. Hopefully it's still clear enough to enjoy.

Today, Sho drops a bomb, Ren is well-intentioned and drops a bomb, and Kyoko discovers a bomb. All bombs are metaphorical, of course. ;)

Just a warning, I may need to take next week off, depending on how writing goes this week.

Hope you enjoy! **Please don't forget to leave a review, a fave, or an alert!**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH25**

Ren watched in wary silence as Kyoko grudgingly strode across the alleyway to check on Sho. A cold, heavy atmosphere seemed to descend as Kyoko drew nearer to the hotel heir.

Behind him, Ren heard harsh footsteps and panted breaths as Momose and Kijima finally caught up. Their assailants had either fled or –

"Captured them, but the bastards took cyanide pills," Kijima growled as soon as he caught his breath.

Agent T frowned grimly. "Same here. Looks like all of our leads are shot."

"Was that Morizumi-san? No wonder Delta knows so much about LME…" Momose huffed as she nursed a growing bruise on her left shoulder. Then she paused as her gaze flickered behind Ren. "Eh? Fuwa-san?"

Agent T turned sharply. Kyoko had been helping Sho up, but now she seemed to be struggling away from her childhood friend. The blonde had a tight grip on her forearms and despite wobbling slightly on an unsteady left foot, he seemed determined to hold on. His gaze remained stubbornly fixed on the ground, avoiding eye contact with Kyoko.

"Baka-Shotaro…" Agent M growled threateningly. "Let me go!"

What was that brat up to now? Scowling, Ren was about to step forward when Sho spoke.

"NO!" Sho yelled loudly, still glaring at the ground. Kyoko was silent, shocked at his vehemence. The blonde repeated in a barely audible mutter, "No… I'm not going to lose you again."

At this pronouncement, Kyoko snapped out of her reverie and began struggling anew. She guffawed, " _Lose_ me! You never _had_ me to begin with! You think I'm your possession or something?"

"Kyoko–"

"Just because I worked for your dad doesn't mean–!"

"Kyoko–"

" – though you certainly treated me like some inanimate object–!"

"Kyoko. I… I think I love you."

All the air seemed to instantly vacate the alley. Ren's heart dropped like a stone. His mouth felt as dry as sandpaper. The horrifying scene continued on, and Ren froze, as if he were a spectator in some terrible, inescapable nightmare.

On her end, Kyoko was again shocked into silence. Eyes wide, she didn't respond. In the dead silence, Sho's voice echoed, broken.

"These past few months have been shit," Sho admitted grudgingly, still glaring at the floor between them. "You're the only thing I worry about. Even when my life is in danger, all I can think about is you. I… I need you."

From some cognizant part of his mind, Ren watched Sho's knuckles whiten as the young man tightened his grip on Kyoko's arms.

"I was always… too proud to say it," Sho ground out. Then with slumping shoulders, he said, "I'm sorry."

Kyoko's face crumpled.

"No…" Tears welled in her eyes.

Sensing her rejection, Sho's head whipped up, and he leaned forward, almost toppling over as his ankle gave out on him. "Please! I just want us to go back to the way we used to be–"

"The way we used to be?"

"Yeah!" The heir's words came in a desperate, hysterical rush. "Except, I'll be better to you! I've changed—!"

"You've _changed_?" Scowling, but now the one who glared at the floor and avoided eye contact, Kyoko spat out, " _You've_ changed? Well. So have I. The old Kyoko you used to know is _dead_."

Before Sho could get another word in, Kyoko's eyes flashed up, full to the brim with furious tears.

"The Kyoko who would let you walk all over her–," she shouted, her voice cracking with raw emotion as she tried anew to twist herself out of his grip, "–And the Kyoko who was innocent… and the Kyoko who could _l-love_ – She's _GONE_ , Shotaro."

"Please!" Shell of pride completely discarded in his desperation, Sho tried again, insistently, "Kyoko, I _need_ you."

Finally, Kyoko wrenched her arms free from him. He stumbled, only to catch himself on the alley's brick wall at the last moment. Kyoko's breathing was heavy and ragged, as if she had just swum a mile or run a marathon. She tried to meet Sho's pained gaze, but her eyes immediately darted back down, like a frightened animal. She scowled at the ground and spoke, her voice raw and vicious.

"You threw me away like trash. You betrayed me. You don't get to just sweep all that under the rug."

"Kyoko—"

"I _will_ get my revenge on you, Shotaro," Kyoko spat out venomously. Her fists curled into tight, angry wads at her sides.

Suddenly without any warning, she deflated, looking lost and sorrowful and thoroughly exhausted. She whispered hoarsely, "You said it yourself, Sho. If you fool me twice, shame on me."

Then Kyoko ran, bumping past Momose and Kijima who were too bewildered to do anything but let her flee. Kyoko didn't even raise her head to look at Ren.

His heart clenched painfully as he watched her turn out of the alley toward the direction of the LME safe house. For a brief moment, he considered running after her. But Ren knew himself.

He would be too weak not to smother her in affection and comfort. Which she deserved. However, a small selfish part of him hoped that in her vulnerable state, she might unabashedly cling to him in return. Finally. But that affection would not be her rational choice but a desperate defense mechanism that she would later regret. It wouldn't be fair to Kyoko to corner and manipulate her in such a way. He needed to check on her as well as clear up any misunderstandings about Morizumi Kimiko as soon as possible, but Kyoko needed time to process without his interference.

Ren refused to take advantage of her emotional helplessness for his own self-satisfaction. It sounded too much like a certain someone…

Agent T turned to watch as Momose and Kijima ran forward to support their charge. Neither agent spoke, just exchanged a grim look before slinging Sho's arms over their shoulders and slowly helping him hobble forward.

Sho's head hung, defeated. But then, as if sensing Ren's presence, the blonde's head snapped up to mirror the deathly glare Ren was shooting him.

As the senior agent turned to the side to let his colleagues pass, Sho suddenly lunged forward on his good leg, shoving Agent T with both hands. Off-balance and caught by surprise, Ren stumbled back a step. The other two LME agents yelped and scrambled to help the Fuwa heir before he fell to the floor.

"You're just toying with her, yet you insist on keeping her!" Sho shouted at Ren. "If you really aren't just taking advantage of her – if you truly valued her, then you'd let her go!"

Against his better judgment, Ren felt his last vestige of restraint snap.

With a snarl, Ren grabbed the younger man by fistfuls of the front of his shirt, hauling him up and ignoring his colleagues' cries of protest.

"You can't possibly understand, what it's like to lose everything – and then to find something important, something beautiful." Ren's glare sharpened. "Someone who has never had to struggle back from the depths of Hell has no right to tell me I don't value her."

Shoving the man away roughly into the wall, Ren glared at him with cold contempt.

"You've been given everything you've ever wanted your entire life. Don't tell me that you understand the meaning of the word, 'precious.'"

With that, Ren strode out of the alley, ignoring the questioning glances from Kijima and Momose and the defeated silence of the Fuwa heir.

 **-x-**

 _Whack. Whack-whack. Thmp. Whack-thmp._

Setsu danced around the punching bag, waiting for the heavy, hanging cylinder to settle before launching into another furious series of Muay Thai punches and knee strikes. With an angry cry, she finished the set with a vicious left knee strike that sent the punching bag jangling away sideways on its chain.

Walking away from the bag and breathing heavily, Setsu swiped at the sweat that rolled down her forehead and into her eyes. After almost half an hour punishing the equipment in the apartment's gym, Setsu felt the perspiration sliding in rivulets down the back of her black sports bra to the waistband of her athletic leggings. Her body felt exhausted after her reckless workout, but her mind and her damned heart refused to quiet down.

She had scared away the few patrons who had been using the fitness center, but that just meant she could go all out without worrying about anyone else interfering.

Flexing her taped hands, she kinked her neck from side to side, rolled her shoulders, then stepped up to the punching bag again.

 _'…go back to the way we used to be…'_

Cross, cross, jab, jab, duck.

' _I was always too proud to say it…'_

Knee strike! "HRAH!"

' _I'm sorry.'_

Sloppy form. Didn't care.

' _Kyoko. I think_ … _'_

"No…" Kyoko teetered on her feet, grasping the bag for stability.

' _I love you…'_

"NO!"

Coiling her body, Kyoko spun and unleashed a brutal, unchecked reverse roundhouse kick against the punching bag. She landed poorly off the rebound, stumbling forward a half step. Exhausted, she didn't see the pendulous, weighted bag swing back toward her. It smacked unforgivingly into her back, sending her flying.

Kyoko landed with a small cry on the wooden floor of the gym, her elbow taking the brunt of the fall. Arm shooting dull throbs of pain, she felt too exhausted to rise again. Instead, she allowed herself to roll onto her back, her injured arm curled over her eyes.

She wouldn't cry again. Crying solved nothing.

But why… Why did it all have to happen at once?

Behind her, Agent M heard heavy footfalls echo through the gym. Shuddering breaths racked her body as she lay drained on the floor. She didn't remove her arm to look at her partner. She couldn't. If she did, then he might see the terrible truth in her eyes.

"Setsu."

"…"

"You overdid it." Cain's voice was flat and disapproving as he drew near. Setsu knew she had indeed gone overboard if her brother of all people was reprimanding her.

Still, she refused to move and meet his gaze.

"You hurt yourself," he said, more of a statement than a question. Kyoko felt Ren's fingers ghost down the growing welt on her elbow as well as the bruises on her stomach from her fight with Kimiko. An uncomfortable shiver traced down her spine. "Setsu, what's wrong?"

"…"

"Setsu…"

When Kyoko sensed her partner lean closer, on instinct, she quickly rose to sit, gaze darting angrily to the side.

"It's unlike me to be so bothered over a cockroach like that," she muttered. "I should not be swayed in my goal."

Seemingly satisfied by her vague answer, Cain Heel just grunted. However, to her dismay, Kyoko felt his hands slide under her knees and back as strong arms lifted her bodily from the floor. Setsu would have responded by openly flirting, but the best Kyoko could muster at the moment was to curl her body so her face was pressed into Ren's chest.

Even then, it felt painful and forced. Very un-Setsu-like. Her heart needed to take the hint so her body could do its job.

Work. She just needed to work. Then maybe all these feelings would just disappear.

But then, above her, she heard Ren whisper, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Morizumi-san."

Kyoko stiffened. It was very unusual for Agent T to break character for something that wasn't an emergency. She was silent, unable to trust her voice not to betray her.

As if mistaking her silence for the cold shoulder, Ren hurried to elaborate, "She was just a former partner who took the act too far. After the mission was over, she refused to come back to reality."

Kyoko felt her gut clench. Heavy emotion washed over her like a sickening wave, drowning her.

"She eventually resigned, telling the President that she wanted to retire and give up espionage."

Drowning.

"Nii-san, I…" Kyoko closed her eyes tightly, hands gripped together over her chest in some weak pretense at a physical barrier for her heart.

"Mogami-san," Ren interrupted insistently, his arms grasping her body more tightly to himself. "I'm telling the truth. She's the one who assumed everything. I never felt anything for her. Nothing happened between us."

Drowning.

"Nii-san." Drawing Setsu around herself like a final, desperate cloak of protection, she muttered into his chest, "We're at the front door."

Kyoko felt her partner's torso expand and then retract quickly, as if heaving a silent sigh. Then Cain shifted her weight to pull the keys out of his pocket and open the door.

After carrying his sister over the threshold and settling her gently on the living room couch, he glanced at the clock. Far past lunchtime, Setsu knew.

"I'm going to order in again," Cain said, eyeing her, but she only mustered a silent nod. He suggested with a gentle growl, "Go wash up."

Rolling off the couch, very aware of her partner's heavy gaze on her back, Kyoko made it to the bathroom. Slowly, she clicked the door closed and turned the lock. Luckily, she was just in time. Just in time before the tears snaked their way down her cheeks.

Clutching the doorknob, as if it would lend her stability, her other desperate, trembling hand came up to press against her mouth. As quickly as she dared, lest her too-urgent footfalls seem suspicious, Kyoko turned and crossed to the shower, cranking on the water to the highest setting. Only then, as her legs gave way and she slid down the bathroom wall, did she allow the shaky, shuddering sobs to come.

…It wasn't fair.

It felt like a hit-and-run accident where the driver had gotten away scot-free, and she was left, crushed and bleeding on the pavement. How could Sho walk away, untouched and unfettered, as she still lived trapped, ball and chain, bound to her grudge against him?

She wanted to be free…but that would only come through revenge. Revenge or… just giving up?

No. Revenge was the only thing driving her forward… but that was a lie, wasn't it?

If she were honest with herself, she knew.

She knew that vengeance had been an increasingly distant thought the past few months. She knew that her hateful thoughts toward Sho had been losing out to thoughts about someone else.

She knew that the real reason she was sobbing on the bathroom floor, character completely cast aside, was due to… _Ren_.

The jealousy she had experienced with Manaka was just a small ripple compared to the tidal wave of envious rage she now felt toward Kimiko. The problem was, she could no longer hide behind Setsu's mask.

That scared her.

Kyoko shook her head, trying to dispel her thoughts, but like a bloated, glutted dam, they burst through her best defenses. In spite of every fortification and barricade she had shored up in her heart, her senpai had blazed past all of them. Judging by the pain, Ren now owned a significantly larger part of her heart than Sho ever could have hoped.

 _'Sho-chan is my prince! I'd do anything for Sho-chan!'_

NO!

As the memories whipped through her mind like a deadly arrow, Kyoko ducked her head to her knees and grit her teeth, the revulsion sweeping over her in a swift wave. Taking deep, gulping breaths, she leaned back against the wall.

This was horrifying. Sho was right. She was just a silly girl with love on the brain after all… And with Ren, she would be a bigger fool than she ever was for Shotaro. Thus the end result was bound to be far more catastrophic…

Horrifying. She might never recover from this.

 _'She's the one who assumed everything. I never felt anything for her.'_

Kyoko had suspected but now, after his words, she knew for certain. She was just the same as every single one of Ren's old partners. Unwanted, unrequited feelings. A pest. Somewhere along the line, despite her high wall of defense and an ample warning, she had been duped.

A bitter chuckle escaped her as she hastily ground her tears away with the heels of her palms. It was just the same old story, wasn't it? No matter who she fell in love with, it would always be one-sided.

Kyoko wasn't a fool. She knew that for the longest time, she had been experiencing the world with a handicap. A blind person in the spring. An amputee in an obstacle course. A starving orphan staring into the window glass of a bakery, then turning away, telling herself she wasn't hungry, she wasn't lame, she wasn't blind.

It was too painful to try and live otherwise.

To have love – no, to merely have the hope of love – was a poison of the worst kind. It would turn her back into a fool. Worse… it would turn her into Morizumi Kimiko.

It was better to convince herself that she could do without love than to try and nourish it. If Ren ever found out, he would think that Mogami Kyoko was just as weak and easily fooled as the first Agent M.

Well, she didn't deny that she was weak, and she was a fool.

Steeling herself, Kyoko pushed against the wall to stand. Slowly and deliberately, she shucked her damp gym clothes from her body. Then she stepped into the shower's stream, letting the hard, scalding jets of water sear her skin and wash the tears from her eyes.

Closing her eyes and leaning a heavy hand against the shower wall, Kyoko promised herself.

No more foolishness. She would be better off without. The feelings would die out soon anyway. This emotion was a curse, and she would not fall prey to it a second time.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Notes:**

If you want to see foreshadowing for Kimiko, check back to Chapter 11. There was a throw-away line in Kyoko's conversation with Yashiro and Maria, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to include Kimiko in the story at that point (this was before the Momiji audition arc, back when Kimiko was still just a girl on a blog that Kyoko had looked up). But I'm really glad I ended up writing her character in because I feel like Kappa is going to turn out to be an excellent foil for Kyoko. Both are driven by love for the same man, yet one is a villain and one a protagonist. That kind of parallel isn't something that can be passed up!

Also, I forgot to mention, but Kimiko doesn't have her Momiji straight black hair as Kappa. If you can picture that initial blog image of her (the one where she is holding the dog) and her hair is lighter and curled, that's the look I'm going for. I thought the black hair would look too much like old-Kyoko, which would decrease the impact once she transformed back into Kimiko. Can you imagine – Kimiko takes off the wig, shakes her hair out, and… looks exactly the same. LOL

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG:** (Just a reminder for those who have forgotten, but I take the most interesting reviews/ questions and respond to them here.)

 **MWEH –** This month's manga chapter is coming soon! Hype! My prediction is that it's going to be Kimiko's audition and her Chidori is going to get eliminated. Then Kuresaki is going to pair Kyoko with the last Chidori (there are 3 Chidori candidates and 2 Momiji candidates), to make her act out a different scene. I predict that the scene that will get Kyoko the part is one that requires her to act out Momiji's despair at her unrequited love toward Shizuma. Good job calling that Kanako was up to no good. And I'm really happy I got you on the edge of your seat for the action! Just wondering, was it tense because you don't know if Kanako died or tense because Sho is trying to run for his life?

 **Aikori Ichijouji –** You want to strangle Kimiko as much as in the original work? I'm flattered that I have able to make her as despicable and dangerously obnoxious! But really. I'd love to strangle that little twit as well. Tch. As for Kyoko being emotionally sucker punched… Tada! Today had two additional ones! I read your review from last week and just laughed because I knew what was coming today. Haha don't worry, our heroine always pulls through! Just curious, what is your opinion of Sho now? I want to see if I'm pulling off what I want to pull off with his character. Hope your nails weren't bitten down to the stubs as you awaited today's installment! Haha

 **A Musing Brunette –** Wow! You changed your name! The only reason I recognized it was still you was because your Cheshire Cat icon and your absolute hatred toward Sho. LOL I recall that you talked about Kyoko getting out of her bet with Sho in an earlier chapter. How did you like how she threw his phrase back at him today? I've been waiting for a loooong time to use that line on him. Hah! And nice catch about Maria's curse! I was wondering if anyone made the connection that ironically it was Maria's curse that saved Sho from getting hit by a truck. And Kimiko is seriously Queen Goblin… Nakamura-sensei usually humanizes her villains and they eventually come around to liking Kyoko, but… TBH, Kimiko has crossed a line by dragging Ren into this. Girl needs to go down. Lol Thanks again for the review! Let me know what you think of today's update!

 **Shizuhoe –** Yay! Someone actually noticed and appreciated that Sho is maturing! Do you still like him after today's installment? Haha And good job calling that Kanako was actually Kappa! As for the love triangle, I actually hate love triangles too. It's such a terrible, overused Shojo manga cliché that throws unnecessary drama into a storyline. BUT, but, but, but I feel like if I could, I'd defend Skip Beat's use of the love triangle with Kimiko. First, the love triangles so far have been only for Kyoko with Ren suffering jealousy (they've also been hilarious because Kyoko obviously and openly hates all of the other guys – ie. Sho, Reino – and it's legitimately just hilarious misunderstandings because she has the worst timing/luck/overreactions.) However, in this instance, Kyoko (who has just admitted openly that she loves Ren but refuses to take action on this love) is being challenged at her roadblock by Kimiko. She has told the President that if Ren were to start dating, she would support him because she cannot overcome her fear of being vulnerable in love again. Now Kimiko comes along, and her tactics drive right at the heart of Kyoko's insecurity and are going to force her to realize that she can't just sit on the sidelines while some girl comes along and takes Ren. I think this arc is not only to showcase the Momiji audition but also to act as a catalyst to drive Kyoko to the realization that she needs to act on her love toward Ren. LOL, I guess that's my only point. Not just my first one, since I'm writing a novel at this point. And don't worry! As for my story, today Ren totally denied his relationship with Kimiko! Denied it to the point that it convinced Kyoko that he couldn't possibly love _her_ either! Haha Really happy that I got you with the Kanako-Kappa-Kimiko plot twist! I got one! Woohoo! Thanks as always for reading and reviewing Shizuhoe! Really appreciate you!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Thank you all for reading! If you have time, please don't forget to write a review, add a fave or an alert. It really makes my day and my hours writing this story worth it! Thanks all!**


	26. Chapter 26

Hello loyal readers,

I ended up taking two weeks to get the next chapter to you after all! Sorry, but in some ways not sorry. I was having a Murasame moment, thinking, "Isn't this happening a little too quickly?" I was feeling rushed to write, and while I do work best with a deadline, I don't want to post chapters just to post _something_. My chapters were getting increasingly unpolished, and I want to make sure that I'm putting 100% into everything that goes up on this site.

Therefore (don't hate me!) I'm going to start posting every other week from now on – at least until I can get a better hold of my story. There's a lot of intense emotional moments and a long flashback coming up and I want to make sure that I'm doing everything justice.

In other news, I saw Hamilton last week and… IT'S SO GOOD! I highly recommend anyone who has an opportunity to see the musical to go watch it! I'm a huge musical fan, and I have to say that it is by far the most unique, clever, moving, intricately woven piece of stagecraft I've seen. GO SEE IT! (Tickets are crazy expensive, but… they're cheaper than World Series tickets?)

Today, as the election looms just over the horizon, we see a handful of little moments with many of our characters. Delta's plot deepens!

Happy reading!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH26**

 **-The Next Day-**

"It may not be a clear-cut victory for us tomorrow."

Lifting the water bottle to her lips, Mogami Saena frowned. This was not the first thing she wanted to hear from her friend while they were between speaking engagements. Sitting beside her in the backseat of the car, Toudou was flipping through a document of some kind on his cellphone, but Saena could tell that as always, he was observing her reaction.

Instead of granting him the pleasure, Saena turned to the car's driver who was just climbing into his seat. "Yoshida-san, they are expecting us at TBM Studios within the hour. My apologies for the rush."

"Yes, Councillor Mogami." Their car's driver started the engine and raised the blacked out sheet of glass that partitioned the front of the car from the back. Quickly pulling out of the parking lot, the car drove purposefully into the Tokyo night, flanked on all sides by the myriad of official black vehicles that made up the Mogami election entourage.

While Saena rifled through the sheaf of papers her assistant had given her, she could sense her colleague staring at her from across the seat. "Yes, Toudou-san?"

"Ogata is still going to take the Lower House." His voice, per usual, was even and betrayed little of his real thoughts. "You read the latest poll numbers."

"And…?" Saena flipped another paper over. It had bulleted talking points for her next interview at TBM.

Toudou sighed, laying a hand against his cheek. "And yet you're unflappable as always. Still not cute at all, Mogami-san."

Saena lowered the document and shot her fellow politician a sharp glance. Still these jokes. "You're just so relaxed because you get elected by proportional representation. You hardly did any campaigning."

"Guilty as charged," Toudou uttered a wry laugh. Then he leaned forward and the harsh glare from the street lights glinted off his glasses. His tone grew serious again, "But you're acting as if it doesn't matter that the House of Representatives and the tie breaker are out of your grasp."

A bubble of unease crept up within her. Saena stuffed it down and turned once again to the papers in her lap. "Delta will take care of it. Won't he?"

She shot Toudou a glance. He merely chuckled thoughtfully and withdrew.

Silence fell over the occupants of the car. Saena continued to stare down at the papers, but she was no longer reading. She was thinking about a young woman with curled auburn hair and a royal blue ball gown who stood wide-eyed and trembling in the hallway of the Kantei.

The dancing troupe had had a web page the night after the event. But by the time Saena had worked up the courage to check out their location in person a month later, the website was no longer there.

Yayoi's email lined up with that timing. Kyoko was no longer at the Fuwa estate, and she had been at Prime Minister Ogata's birthday gala. But where was she now? Was she going to school? Was she eating?

"You're thinking about her again, aren't you?"

Saena stiffened, caught mid-thought. Amused, Toudou emphatically pointed to his own forehead, or rather to the lack of creases between his brows. Instantly, Saena forced herself to relax, trying to smooth the frown from her face as best she could.

This infuriating man was still able to read her like a book after all these years…

Instead of gloating like she thought he would, Toudou leaned back in his seat and cocked his head to the side, observing her. "You're not planning to find her, are you?"

Saena felt her frown immediately crawl back into place. "Not now…"

"If things don't go according to your predictions," he pointed out gravely, "that might become 'not ever.'"

Growing silent, Saena turned back to the papers in her lap. "I know."

"Mogami-san," Toudou asked abruptly, "What have all these years been for?"

Unease crept with heavy weight over her heart. Saena didn't like that probing tone. She didn't like it, because she herself didn't know the answer to his question. After all these years and all this hard work, she still didn't know.

Was it for self-satisfaction? Revenge? The truth?

Unable to stop herself from heaving a heavy sigh, she turned to look out the car window as the Tokyo cityscape rushed by.

"I don't know…"

 **-x-**

'Ren, you're a hypocrite,' he told himself for the thousandth time that night. He was standing – brooding, really – on the Heel's balcony outside their bedroom, pretending to smoke a cigarette. Occasionally, he would glance back at the lump of blankets on the bed. Kyoko's sleeping form caused the lump to rise and fall slowly, only her small face peeking out from a gap in the covers.

After seeing her in the gym yesterday, Ren thought that she had worked out her frustrations. Though she was still clearly shaken by Fuwa's confession, she seemed to be recovering.

This was why he had attempted to clear up the Kimiko misunderstanding as soon as possible. He didn't want anything else weighing on Kyoko's heart – if he could be presumptuous enough to assume that she felt any jealousy at all over Kimiko's misleading words.

However, something had triggered a regression.

Yesterday Kyoko had marched out of the bathroom as Setsu, completely yet desperately in character. Save for the puffy, red quality of her eyes and nose, Kyoko betrayed no emotion behind the shield of the monotone Brit for two whole days. She was like a Setsu animatronic – dutifully preparing meals, cleaning their weapons, and making flirty but empty quips to her brother.

But something was distinctly off. Whenever Cain would draw close, Setsu would always slip away, excuses nonchalantly spilling from her lips. Her mask would never waver.

Even on the eve of the election, with the woman who had abandoned her on every major television channel, Kyoko took it all with a flat, disinterested affect. It was sad to watch what they both knew was a charade.

Ren had almost spoken his thoughts aloud.

Maybe it would be better if she gave up her grudge against Fuwa.

It was just hurting her, poisoning her. Sho wasn't worth her torment. But if she actually forgave that brat, then would there be a chance – even microscopic – that she might go back to that guy?

Heaving a sigh, Ren hung his head and stubbed the cigarette out in the dish that lay on the balcony table. Sliding open the glass door, Ren noted that the lump on the bed curled into itself more tightly, protecting its occupant from the draft he had let in before he shut the door.

Silently, slowly, he lowered himself to sit on the bed next to her, the mattress sinking slightly under his weight.

Kyoko's forehead wrinkled before smoothing out. She muttered something in her sleep that sounded suspiciously like a partial recipe for _oyakodon_. Then she was still. Stifling an amused chuckle, Ren brought his hand up to gently stroke the side of her face. He tucked an errant strand of Setsu's wig away behind his partner's ear. Then he paused and withdrew his hand guiltily.

He was so selfish when it came to this girl. All take and no give.

To some degree, Fuwa was right. Ren was taking advantage of her support and her effort. Without Kyoko's quick thinking and impeccable character portrayals, there was no doubt in Ren's mind that he would never have gotten as close as he had to his goal.

Yet he knew he couldn't have his cake and eat it too. Rick or Kyoko? Revenge or restoration? At the end of the day, Ren knew that he would have to choose one.

He still had no solution to the issue that had plagued him all these months since his realization of his feelings at the PM's gala. He had just let the problem drag on and on because he was too much of a coward to face the consequences of cutting off one path or the other.

'Ren, you're a hypocrite _and_ a coward.'

He didn't deserve her. She deserved someone better than a hypocrite and a coward.

Sighing quietly, Ren rose from the bed and shucked off Cain Heel's heavy black trench coat, letting it drop to the ground.

For a moment, he considered crawling into bed to sleep next to Kyoko. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence anymore. Whenever he needed comfort or to be grounded after a particularly dark and trying day of work, Ren would cuddle next to her under the safe guise of Cain.

However, tonight… It just didn't seem right. Just the idea left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Ren climbed into the cold, empty bed across the room. As he settled in, he turned on his side to look at the shape of the girl he loved, a vague lump in the darkness. The lump rose and fell, breathing in peaceful slumber.

Biting back a groan of frustration, Ren turned to lie on his other side, facing the wall.

He was still at an impasse. Furthermore, he felt guilty. He couldn't help her with the advice that she needed most.

Ren couldn't tell her to give up her mission for revenge. After all, it was still his goal to find Rick's murderer and to kill the man in the most painful manner humanly possible.

 **-x-**

"The results look promising so far," Yukihito noted cheerfully as he handed the latest printout to President Takarada.

Instead of the President's countenance brightening, however, Lory merely folded the paper in half and placed it on his desk. The President sighed, lacing his fingers together and folding them under his chin.

Feeling a prick of unease, Yashiro raised his eyebrows. "Sir…?"

"Hmm?"

"I thought you would have been more pleased with the preliminary election results." The tech support shuffled nervously in front of the President's desk. "It seems that Prime Minister Ogata will be winning the House of Representatives as we had previously anticipated."

"Hmmm…"  
"And… Even if Mogami Saena wins the House of Councillors, the Lower House overrules the Upper if there's a tie for over ten days, so…"

Lory sighed and leaned back in his chair. At that moment, Yashiro realized what had been bothering him this whole time. The President was in a suit. No fancy, ridiculous costume. No medieval knight chainmail. No Alaskan Eskimo getup. No imperial Qing dynasty garb. No jungle greenery or Arabian horses or Indian elephants decorated his office either. It was… _normal_.

"Bizarre…" Yashiro muttered under his breath.

"Indeed, it is bizarre. Is it not, Yashiro-san?"

He'd been caught! Stiffening, the tech support chuckled weakly. "W-What's bizarre, President?"

Staring off into the distance, Lory frowned, still deep in thought. "Delta is clearly in charge of manipulating the election to get Mogami Saena elected, yet he has faltered at this final step. Why is that? It's bizarre…"

Hiding his small sigh of relief, Yashiro again stopped to ponder. Indeed, after putting together the pieces of Reino, Takemura Ryuji, and the election, it had not been difficult for the PSIA analyst team to infer that the election was being manipulated from the shadows. But they couldn't prove anything.

Hence, the Dangerous Mission with Cain and Setsu Heel was even more vital. If Reino was working for Delta in targeting and defaming Representative Takemura, then there was a high possibility that Henshin was behind all of this.

As the infiltrators of Henshin, Cain and Setsu were the LME's ace in the hole.

However, speaking of Setsu…

"Um… President?"

Lory perked up. "Yes, Yashiro?"

Tilting his head to the side, confused, Yukihito asked, "President, is there a reason why you haven't pulled Kyoko-chan from the field? After all, she's Councillor Mogami's daughter..."

The President's face darkened, his frown becoming more pronounced.

Yashiro threw his hands up defensively, shaking his head side to side. "N-Not that she's suspicious! We both saw how she reacted to her mother at the PM's gala. Not even a miraculous actress could pull off that kind of reaction! But why not pull Kyoko-chan out, even just to protect her at such a critical time?"

Lory sighed, and for once Yashiro could see the weary, prominent bags under the President's eyes. Takarada's exuberant personality had been stretched thin in the past few weeks.

"Actually…" Passing a hand over his face, Lory looked sadly at Yashiro. "I proposed pulling Mogami-kun out weeks ago."

"What–?"

Unable to meet his subordinate's gaze, the President's eyes drifted downward. "The PSIA won't allow it. They have considered the risk posed to her, but think that pulling Setsu Heel out of the field at this crucial point in time might rouse Delta's suspicions. My commanders have forbid me from even communicating the risk to her, because they don't want her to lose focus."

Yashiro felt a wave of anger surge within him. He snapped sarcastically, "And they couldn't possibly jeopardize the infiltration into Henshin…. Even if it puts Kyoko-chan in the path of unsavory characters who could try to kidnap her or kill her for who knows what purpose!"

The wave of anger crested into despair as Yukihito deflated. Lory merely watched him in sad silence before speaking again.

"There is hope, you know."

"Hope?"

The President clasped his hands again and rested his elbows on his desk. "Very few people are privy to the fact that Mogami-kun is related to Mogami Saena. And even fewer know that she is with the LME Unit. And…"

"And even fewer than that know where she is – _who_ she is – right now!" Yashiro finished, feeling a swell of triumph buoy him up. "It's risky, but it just might work out."

"I agree," President Takarada said with a small, grim smile. "We can only hope that right under the enemy's nose is the safest place for her right now."

 **-x-**

"Your agent failed to take out the brat," the businessman accused.

Delta ignored him, continuing to sort through the papers in the file folder on his desk. Sensing the man's growing frustration, Delta didn't jump in surprise when an angry hand slammed itself down on his mahogany desk.

Without looking up from his papers, Delta reached forward to steady the cup of pens that was ready to topple over.

"Now, Saito-san," he couldn't quite help the long-suffering tone in his voice that sounded as if he were calming a particularly petulant child.

"I'm done playing your games!" The man named Saito snarled, "You promised me the Fuwa Hotel Empire, and you failed to meet your end of the bargain."

Shuffling the papers and tapping them against the desk to bring the stack together, Delta calmly placed the stack back in the folder and laid it down. With deliberate slowness, the dark-haired man rose from his chair. As he walked around his desk, he reached into his back pocket and pulled on a set of black leather gloves.

When Delta looked up, the businessman was nearly seizing, screaming out his angry tirade.

"With the brat still alive, that shitty old man will never pass the company to me!" Saito was almost foaming at the mouth in rage as Delta calmly approached. The irate vice president wagged an accusatory finger at Delta. "I'll never tell Takemura to vote for you! Without my influence, your whole plan is sunk! You'll never win over the Diet–! GAHH!"

Delta sighed in relief. Finally some peace and quiet.

Cords stood out in the master spy's arm as he tightened his grip on Saito's neck, pushing the man firmly into the floor. Still dazed from Delta's sudden judo throw and now nearly hypoxic, the businessman scrabbled weakly on the floor, trying to push Delta's hand off his neck.

"Now, now, Saito-san," the spy crooned. "There's no use in struggling…"

Saito tried to speak, but it came out wheezing and desperate and garbled in saliva. To Delta, it sounded like, "But you need me!"

Chuckling darkly, Delta simply pressed harder, turning his head slightly to dodge a bit of spittle that had flown from the vice president's lips. "Oh Saito-san. You were merely one plan of many."

The businessman's movements were growing sluggish and clumsy. Finally after a minute or so, he stilled altogether.

"But since you were so concerned, I apologize for worrying you," Delta mused to the body as he rose to his feet. "The situation will resolve in the end… After all, _she's_ depending on me to take care of it."

Crossing the room, Delta clicked a button on his desk phone. "Konoe, I need a body cleaned up in here. Also, I have some news from Kappa I would like to discuss with you in person."

On the speakerphone, Konoe tutted over the fact that Delta had eliminated yet another pawn. Delta chuckled and apologized. Then, he hesitated before saying, "Oh, and Konoe."

"Yes, Delta?"

"If we do not end up securing the election, please extend my personal invitation to the Heel siblings. My office, noon, two days from now."

"Consider it done."

As Konoe hung up, Delta stripped the black gloves from his hands and tossed them in the trash. Settling down in his chair, Delta reached forward to grasp the file sitting on the upper corner of his desk. As he opened it again, he shuffled through several photographs.

All of them were grainy images taken with a telephoto lens. In one, a tall dark-haired man was running across the deck of a cargo ship. In another photo, the same man but with a more traditional hairstyle and fashion sense stood outside a Western-style mansion in Mitaka, appearing to bicker with a shorter blonde-haired man.

The tall man's hair was dyed dark and he was certainly older than Delta recalled, but…

Delta felt a small grin tug at the corners of his lips.

It was _him_ after all.

Changing the wording on Tau's mission briefing for their "audition" had been a long shot, but it had provoked the response that Delta had hoped. It was time to start putting that _other_ plan into motion.

Dialing another phone number from memory, Delta brought the receiver to his ear. He smiled when he heard the Vie Ghoul assassin's gruff, "Yeah? What?"

"Mu? It's Delta," Henshin's leader picked up the photograph of Cain Heel and brought it up to the light. "I have a job for you."

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Notes:**

 **Kantei** – The Official Residence of the Prime Minister; where Ogata's birthday gala was held.

 **Oyakodon** – A Japanese dish of chicken and egg over rice. The awesome thing about the name is that the literal translation is "Parent and child bowl". Get it? Chicken… and egg…? Ok, maybe it's half awesome half creepy…

 **Mitaka** – A city far west of Tokyo, more toward the countryside. Careful readers would have noted that it's the city where the LME stages the Hongo family's mansion in Chapter 1-2.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG** (Just a reminder for those who have forgotten, but I take the most interesting reviews/ questions and respond to them here.)

 **MWEH –** Thanks for answering my question! It's always good to get a gauge of what the audience is responding to in the manner that I intended them to respond. As for this past chapter, thanks for your reassurance that the characters' emotions came out well! You were right about Kimiko being difficult to get rid of! I wonder what Kyoko will do with this new information that Kimiko had misled her about the "relationship" between her and Ren. I feel like there's going to be another "filler" chapter of Kyoko processing emotions and setting up the next stage of the Momiji audition. Kanae's competition probably just got smooshed compared to her performance. Haha Thanks as always, MWEH!

 **A Musing Brunette –** Haha, I agree! I think that Sho needed to mature a lot, and unfortunately the idea that everyone around him is just there to serve and support him is a mentality partially born of his background and wealth (at least in this story). The devastating results from his confession here, in addition to almost being killed by Kimiko, will teach him a few hard lessons that he needs. ;) As for the manga, it looks like per the most recent chapter, we don't need to take Kimiko's feelings for Ren seriously at all! Perfect! It almost makes it _too_ easy that she was just lying and was not seriously emotionally invested. I really liked Kanae's lines too! They made me laugh out loud in public while I was reading it. xD

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Thanks for the input~! Hopefully more evidence will be submitted to the council before their final decision haha. That is one of my goals in this fic is to make Sho more than just an obnoxious obstacle, but to flesh him out and show that he's capable of growth as well. LOL but maybe in some alternate universe, Kyoko didn't make it in time and Sho didn't make it… and he never confessed and started all this emotional turmoil for her! Thanks again Aikori! OH! Before I forget, on the SB fan page I joined on FB, a couple of the posters were recommending your fics! I was like, "AH! I know that author!" Haha congrats!

 **Crazy4Animation** – Hello Elina! Welcome! Do come in! Thank you so much for being a silent supporter and now a reviewer! I really appreciate the support :) I'm really glad that you enjoyed the story and that it was able to hit all the emotional beats with you! That's exciting to hear as an author! Please don't remove your old stories! All writers are they themselves works-in-progress, but with practice, we're all only getting better. If you were serious about wanting writing tips, I'd recommend the Youtube channels: Super Eyepatch Wolf, Just Write, The Closer Look, and Extra Credits. You can browse through their videos and while many of them focus on anime or gaming or film, a lot of them have good tips on writing in general. Something else I recommend is read a LOT of books. Read with the intent of figuring out what you like about certain characters, why you like them, what you don't like about a book, etc. I'm still just a noob trying to fudge my way through life, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt haha. Thanks again for reviewing!

 **Brennakai** – Hopefully the raw emotion wasn't too much of a turnoff! I'm trying to stay away from the Angst genre haha And indeed! Kyoko needs to get ice cream with Kanae. I need ice cream! Thanks again brennakai!

 **Guest** – Thanks! "Captivated" is such high praise! I'm very glad you've been enjoying and hope you continue! Leave a name next time so I can do a shout out to you personally. :)

 **Admiringfromafar –** Thanks! I'm hoping to make my characters more 3D than 2D, if you catch my drift. ;) Thank you for reviewing and admiring from afar! Haha

 **Shizuhoe –** Haha,I wasn't trying to make Sho dislikable again! I was asking because I wanted to make sure that Sho is actually coming across as more human and likeable! That's one of my pet peeves about SB fics is that many people demonize Sho and I think that he's _more_ than that. Just… incredibly selfish and immature. But aren't we all, sometimes? Also, Ren couldn't run after Kyoko because… he needed to totally give Sho a tongue-lashing! Muhahaha! Is that contradictory? Sorry that I ended up skipping a week, but thanks for understanding! Thanks for reviewing!

 **Sasusakufan2357 –** WOW! Haha, I loved your review. Thanks so much for the affirmation and praise. Surprisingly, I almost didn't write Kimiko into this fic, but I left some wiggle room/possible foreshadowing in the beginning and after reading the current events going on in the manga, she just wormed her way into the story. Haha And I KNOWWW! Sometimes I read the manga, and just face-palm because I want them to figure out their feelings! But if they did then the romantic tension would go away and it wouldn't be as exciting! Haha Thanks again for the review! Hope to see you around again. ;)

 **-x-**

 **Thank you all for reading! If you have time, please don't forget to write a review, add a fave or an alert. It really makes my day and my hours writing this story worth it! Thanks all!**


	27. Chapter 27

Hello loyal readers!

Hope this chapter finds you all well! Thanks for being so understanding about posting every other week. It's helping me flesh things out more and not feel so rushed to produce SOMETHING.

On a fun side note, has anyone heard of/played Doki Doki Literature Club? It's a really great/ironic/creepy visual novel that starts off quirky and fun and quickly turns anime tropes on their heads and becomes REALLY eerie.

Today, we get a short visit with everyone's favorite creepy stalker and the Heel siblings finally meet Delta face to face.

 **Thank you all for reading! If you have time, please don't forget to write a review, add a fave or an alert. It really makes my day! :3**

Enjoy!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH27**

"So… What happens now?"

"Huh? With what?"

"The election! I don't think I've ever seen the Houses split before."

Reino sighed. He tired of these wearisome simpletons. Did they not understand, for the Devil's sake, that their miserable voices carried down the hall from the guard station to his cell?

For not the first time that day, Reino cursed the doctor who had de-poisoned him, thus robbing him of the sweet, calming embrace of death. Instead, he had to deal with _these_ meatheads…

"Uhh… I think I remember reading that if nothing changes after ten days, then it's the House of… Councillors' vote that counts?"

No… It was the Representatives…

"Man, you're an idiot! It's not the House of Councillors! It's the House of… What was the other one called again?"

"House of Representatives," Reino hissed under his breath. "It's the House of Representatives."

Taking a deep, calming breath to attempt to soothe his fraying nerves, Reino shifted on his cot and reached underneath to feel for the small glass bottle he had taped to the bottom of the metal bedframe. As his fingers closed around the vial, Reino let out a small, contented sigh.

It was a mild sedative and amnesiac he had painstakingly concocted over several months after distilling down various items taken from his cell and swiped from the guards. It was a beautiful poison – a labor of love – and Reino couldn't wait to use it.

"House of Representatives!" One of the guards shouted in a wild yet belated epiphany. "And since Ogata won that House, he'll win the election in ten days!"

"Man… That's such a shame."

"Huh? Why? I thought Ogata was a pretty good PM."

"Yeah he was. But that Saena lady's got a pretty good shape. If you know what I mean…"

Dropping his head to his hands, Reino ground the heels of his hands into his eyes and groaned.

Nine days. Nine more days until _that day_. Would he survive?

 **-x-**

"We won!"

For the first time in her life, Kanae was so relieved and just plain _happy_ that she didn't care about decorum or appearing composed. Wrinkling her carefully ironed blouse and suit skirt, she jumped up and down, pumping her fist into the air.

As she calmed down slightly, Kanae felt a warm trickle trace down her cheek. Wiping the moisture away, Kanae wondered how long it had been since she had cried tears of joy.

She felt Asami come up from behind and tug her into a fierce hug. Chuckling self-consciously, Kanae tried to wipe away the rest of her tears that just wouldn't seem to stop. Asami laughed as well, and let the LME agent go. Apparently the Prime Minister's wife was a bit teary as well.

"We won," Kanae repeated, almost in ecstatic disbelief. It had been a difficult campaign road and a nail-biting race against the New Change Party up until the very end. But they had done it!

Well. Almost. But their victory was essentially won! With the current layout of the Diet, Ogata would still maintain the majority of the votes in the House of Representatives. The ten days for the Upper and Lower House to wait out their stalemate was merely a formality. If none of the politicians changed their votes, the gridlock would resolve in Ogata's favor. There had been five such splits in all of Japan's democratic history, and none of them had ever gone to the party favored by the House of Councillors.

"Prime Minister Ogata," Kanae turned from Asami to face her interim boss. However, as she saw his expression, the joy began to seep from her body, replaced by a dreadful, heavy ice.

"Anata…"

Apparently Asami had seen Hiroaki's face as well.

Kanae stepped forward hesitantly, as if approaching a startled animal. "Prime Minister…?"

Ogata snapped out of his reverie, the look of fear still clinging closely to his features. But he attempted to hide behind a hastily painted-on smile. His politician's smile. "M-My apologies. I seemed to be staring off into space. What were you two saying?"

Kanae and Asami exchanged a worried glance.

Hand clutched to her chest, Asami stepped forward. "Hiroaki, you're acting quite strange. You should be celebrating, right? It's essentially your victory…"

At this, Ogata uttered a short, uneasy laugh. "I-Is that so…?"

"We've been over the statistics, Prime Minister," Kanae said with a frown, the weight of anxiety settling around her breastbone. "Historically, the Diet will either continue on in this stalemate or the Upper House will agree with the Lower… The record has always been quite consistent…"

Ogata paused, the haunted look looming back over his features. Then he shook his head and looked up at his wife and assistant, a sad smile ghosting over his lips. It looked, to Kanae, like the smile of a condemned man who has come to terms with his sentence. As the two women exchanged concerned looks, Ogata dropped his gaze to the floor.

"While that may be true," he said, his voice small and forlorn, "Unfortunately, the only consistency in life is that it's inconsistent."

 **-x-**

On the outside, Setsu regarded her surroundings in boredom as the guards led her down the pristine, tiled hallway of Delta's hideout. After she had complained loudly for the umpteenth time that the blindfold was messing up her mascara, Konoe had finally given the ok that the Heel siblings could proceed without the blindfolds. However, by that time, the damage had been done.

Not to her mascara, of course, which looked fine with a minor touch-up. But the mirror compact that doubled as their GPS tracker was no longer broadcasting. Something was jamming its signal.

It was to be expected, Agent M rationalized in her mind. After such a complex game of cat and mouse, a smart man like Delta wouldn't carelessly give away the location of his hideout. But on one hand, there was caution and then there was just sheer paranoia.

After picking them up and patting them down for weapons, Konoe must have had his driver crisscross over the majority of Tokyo in traffic and down backstreets to get them to this location. Though she had memorized the first fifty or so turns, Kyoko eventually had to give up. Even Ren had been stumped, indicating to her later with a small shake of his head that attempting to memorize the route had been a fruitless endeavor.

The only clue Kyoko had was that when they exited the vehicle, she could hear echoes, as if they were inside a tunnel or were underground. The chill permeating the air had also supported this theory. However the echoes diminished as they were led into some manner of building then an elevator. Then Konoe had finally let them remove the blindfolds.

Now, Kyoko was trying to quell her inner panic, lest the crazy idea that Delta had _somehow_ figured out their identities and had only brought the LME agents here to dispose of them – _don't panic, Kyoko!_ – bled through to the outside and compromised her Setsu mask.

A small touch to her hand nearly sent her jumping, but Kyoko reeled back her fright just in time. It was merely Cain. Apparently he had noticed her anxiety. Without looking at her, he was reaching down to hold her hand, his fingers intertwining naturally with hers.

A small fuzzy jolt made Kyoko's heart skip a beat. Then the heavy, familiar pain settled back in the pit of her stomach. Given the mixed company, she couldn't avoid him like she had the past few days. She couldn't escape.

It hurt so much…

To prevent herself from instinctively clutching a hand to her chest, Kyoko clenched her empty hand into a fist, digging her nails into the palm of Setsu's fingerless leather glove.

'It's only an act,' she repeated in her mind like a desperate mantra. 'It means nothing.'

However, she couldn't help but berate herself, because if it really meant nothing, why did it hurt so much?

"Setsu."

Biting back a gasp, Kyoko froze. Melding back into her role, she looked up at Cain. Tilting her head to the side, Setsu intoned, "Yes, Nii-san?"

"We're here. Don't space out."

Setsu looked up sharply. Just as her brother had said, the guards had stopped in front of a pair of imposing brushed-steel double doors.

Delta.

Her heart felt like it catapulted to her throat.

Trying to hide her nervousness, Kyoko couldn't help but tighten her grip ever so slightly on her partner's hand before catching herself. Ren's thumb gently stroked the back of her hand once, sending another lightning bolt careening down her spine.

However, before the blush threatening to crest across her cheeks could appear, the guards were opening the doors.

The metal doors swung outward on smooth, silent hinges, revealing a large room shaped like a half-circle. Most strikingly, the curve of the entire wall across the room was comprised of floor-to-ceiling windows that framed an expansive view of Tokyo's twinkling city lights. The room was empty save for an impressive dark wood desk situated just inside the curve of the room across from the door.

Beyond the desk, his hands clasped behind his back as he stood gazing out the centermost window, was a man.

Kyoko felt her heartbeat quicken. It was him. Delta.

From some distant part of her mind, Kyoko stepped forward with Ren, past the guards carrying their automatic rifles and across the cold floor, which she noted had an intricate tile mosaic in the shape of Lady Justice, blindfolded and holding her scale and sword. As they drew closer to the center of the room, Kyoko saw that the man before them was not terribly imposing in appearance. Rather, he was middle-aged, of average height and build with black hair that he wore slicked back. His charcoal gray suit was neither exorbitantly expensive nor was he shabbily dressed.

As he turned from the window, Kyoko had a moment where she could imagine that his face was a friendly one. A face that, if she were to pass on the subway, would not give her cause to pause. A face that was built to blend into a crowd.

Then past his glasses, his eyes fixed on hers, and she felt that notion blown away by the sheer force of his cold, ruthless gaze.

This was a man who knew what he wanted from life and had the determination to get it. This was power. This was intelligence. This was Delta.

"So we finally meet. Chi. Sigma."

Kyoko had expected his voice to be low and menacing, yet it was surprisingly… _normal._ Blinking away her surprise, Kyoko regained her Setsu mask. Laying her free hand on a cocked hip, she listed her head to one side.

"Hmph. It took you long enough to recognize Nii-san's talent, old man."

Internally, Kyoko froze. That damn, reckless Setsu! So disrespectful! And at their first meeting too!

Contrary to her fears, Delta merely chuckled. "Just as Konoe reported. Brazen and with quite a bizarre sibling relationship to boot."

He pointedly eyed the Heel siblings' intertwined hands.

"What's wrong with that?" Instantly, Setsu wrapped herself around Cain's arm. "Nii-san is the most important. What's wrong with showing that to everyone in the world?"

Instead of recoiling in embarrassment like Konoe or in horror like Murasame, Delta simply chuckled again and strode around his desk to stand in the middle of the room before the Heels.

"Indeed," the leader remarked and eyed the two with amusement. "There is merit in protecting those you truly cherish."

Slightly unnerved but careful not to show it, Kyoko unfurled herself from around Cain's arm. However, though his hand was slack in her grip, Cain refused to let go. Puzzled, Kyoko tried to surreptitiously glance up at her partner.

"But enough of the idle pleasantries," Delta said, snapping Kyoko's attention back to him as he leaned against the front of his desk. He pushed his glasses up on his nose. "I realize that I have been rude and have asked you to do many things on my behalf without any context."

Ren's grip on her hand tightened.

"Your work without context ends tonight." Delta gazed at them evenly. "You've shown yourselves to be trustworthy and industrious. I'm bringing you into the inner circle of Henshin."

Kyoko felt her heartbeat quicken. This was it. The culmination of all their missions for Henshin so far…

Ren's grip simply grew tighter.

"Before, you were just hired hands, but now I would like to share my vision with you before you agree to go any further." Appearing to consider their silence an invitation to continue, Delta paced back around to the front of the room, facing the wall with the windows. He seemed to stare out into the nightlights of the city. He suddenly asked, "Tell me. Why do good people suffer while the rich and powerful always manage to get off scot-free?"

Kyoko watched as Delta gripped a fist behind his back, his knuckles whitening.

"Why do the trash of society get ahead while others fall?" The dark-haired man turned his head slightly to regard the Heels out of the corner of his eye. "Surely even you have experienced this injustice."

For a moment, Kyoko forgot to breathe. It was as if Delta _knew_. But he couldn't know about Sho. That was impossible.

However, Delta had moved on in his speech, turning back to the window. "I am sure that you two have not become what you are today out of a desire for power or wealth. Likely, it was desperation that drove you to this lifestyle. Likely, you had been stepped on, used as a stepping stone by someone else so that they could get ahead.

"The reason why I am inviting you onboard is because I can tell. You are worthy. And our job is to crush those in power who are unworthy. Those in power, those with wealth, those who use and abuse the fortune of fate's blessing. We will get revenge for all those who have been mere stepping stones for the successes of others."

Then Kyoko noticed. Her partner's grip on her hand was getting immensely painful. Alarmed, Kyoko glanced up at Ren.

"However, society will not merely change on a whim. There need to be drastic changes–"

As Delta continued on, Kyoko looked up in horror at the murderous anger that had contorted her senpai's features. The man's gaze, fixed in the center of Delta's back –so dark and fierce and _feral_ –sent a heavy jolt of fear shooting down Kyoko's spine.

 _Ren holding Reino aloft by his shirt collar. Ren chasing Murasame over the cargo containers. Ren coming home and locking himself in the shower for hours._

 _Ren at the top of the Edo Land ferris wheel frowning and murmuring, "I lost control of myself."_

A cold finger of terror curled around her heart.

'Why now? Why here?'

Desperate to reset him, Agent M summoned Setsu and murmured, "Nii-san. Are you paying attention?"

For a moment, Kyoko felt a sliver of hope as Ren's hand relaxed his grip. Then, he dropped her hand entirely, moving his deathly tight grip to his left wrist.

The furious glare on his face began to morph into a manic, bloodthirsty grimace.

Beyond her fear, Kyoko began to panic. If Delta turned around like this, while Agent T was so wildly out of character–!

"–Our first goal is to infiltrate Japan's government and root out all the filth. Even if we get our hands dirty in the process, that is a small price to pay for a chance to change the world–"

Kyoko could tell Delta was winding down in his speech. Her heart racing, she glanced back and forth between Ren and Delta.

Ren's hand trembled as he continued to clutch at his left wrist, his grip so tight that it caused the muscles in his neck to stand out. A vein pulsated in his forehead, as if with a concentrated effort to hold himself back from whatever violent actions the rest of his body wished to perpetrate.

That's when the thought struck her. Ren was losing. Whatever darkness, whatever demons plagued his heart – he was losing to them.

'NO!'

Acting on pure instinct, before her logical mind and wounded heart could rationalize away such a course of action, Setsu had snatched her brother's hand back with one hand. With the other, she swiftly grabbed Cain by the collar of his coat, dragging him down to face her.

As his murderous rage turned on her, Kyoko felt a small shiver of fear race through her. But beyond that, she felt an absolute conviction. Ren should not be losing to whatever darkness had possessed him. He was Agent T. He was her partner. He was her… friend. He was much better than this!

So she brought her hand up and flicked him as hard as she could right in the center of his forehead.

"Baka Nii-san," Setsu hissed. "Nii-san has a weird look on his face again."

To her relief as she let go and he straightened, a small flicker of clarity cut through her partner's eyes.

"–And that is how we are close to swaying the necessary votes in the Diet to get our chosen member elected," Delta said as he turned from the window. He looked pointedly between the two siblings. "And you two, Chi and Sigma, will help us to obtain the last votes."

Not daring to remove her eyes from Delta to check on Ren, Kyoko watched as Delta strode around his desk again to stand before them. The man cocked his head to the side and smiled.

"So, will you two join me as we strive to build a society without corruption or abuse? Will you help me get revenge on those who have secretly destroyed so many innocent lives?"

For a heartbeat, there was silence.

Hiding her nervousness, Kyoko as Setsu tilted her head to look up at Cain. "Well Nii-san… How about it?"

To her relief, Cain emanated from Ren's features. However, as he spoke, the cold sheen of malice in his eyes was not entirely from Cain.

"Sure. Why not," Ren said slowly, holding Delta's steady gaze. "After all. I am in the business of revenge."

 **-x-**

* * *

 **NOTES:**

 **Japanese Elections:** I think I might have said before, but from my understanding, Japanese elections are done in two stages. First, the general public elects their Representatives in the Diet (Councillors are elected at a different time, I believe – so me saying in the last chapter that Toudou had to campaign was a bit of a slip!), then the Representatives and Councillors vote for a Prime Minister. The Prime Minister then appoints people to be his cabinet ministers. However, if the Upper (Councillors) and Lower (Representatives) Houses cannot agree on a candidate, they continue to discuss and vote until a decision is reached or until 10 days is up. Then, the tie-breaker is whomever the Representatives chose.

 **Anata** – term of endearment that wives call their husbands.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **Sasusakufan2357** – Hahaha, I can picture the nervous Kermit gif that you're talking about! Are you even more nervous/worried after this chapter? :3 Sadly, I hadn't planned to write Koga into this fic. By the time I was planning out the storyline, the manga was only at the point where Kyoko is reading about Kimiko on her blog website. Koga hadn't even been introduced yet. Make sure you're near a hospital when you have your good heart attack! ;) As for the most recent manga chapter… ARGH! I sense that next chapter is going to be a "filler" – just serving the purpose of getting the characters from this new revelation about Kimiko to the next dramatic beat (showdown between Kyoko and Kimiko?). Their relationship goes so agonizingly slowly, that… maybe Nakamura-sensei is trying to turn us all into Yashiro-like-fanboys. Lol

 **Crazy4Animation** – Thanks! I really appreciate the encouragement and praise! :) I'll keep on working hard in the future!

 **Guest** – Thanks for the praise! I'm really glad that you liked the update, and are understanding about the extra wait time. Next time, leave a name so I can respond to you individually! :)

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Hehe, I saw your PM! It's such an amazing honor to have someone draw fanart of your fic! :D I'm so proud of you! Did you end up joining the FB group? Also, thanks for understanding about the extra time between chapters! Thanks as always for your weekly/bi-weekly support!

 **MWEH** – I'm a part of a SB group on Facebook, and there have been quite a few posts by disappointed fans who are growing tired of the "slow" pace of the story due to the wait between chapters. Honestly, I wish she'd move from monthly to bi-monthly, but I heard that she was publishing chapters of SB twice a month but quickly burnt-out energy and health-wise. I guess I'd rather her survive and finish the series… lol! As for Kanae possibly seeing through Kyoko's lie, in an early translation of the chapter, it said that Kanae figured it out, but the final, cleaned version, that nuance was left out? Not sure if Kanae caught Kyoko or not in reality haha. My impression of Kimiko's reaction was that she was 110% maaaaaaajorly pissed off. At this point, I actually think that Kimiko would be capable of physical violence, like what happened to Erika. As for Rick being Delta…. Fufufufu… What on earth could today's chapter mean? ;3

 **Shizuhoe** – I'm glad you found Saena to be a bit surprising! I like that Nakamura-sensei has made her more relatable with a relatively tragic backstory instead of just a grade A beeotch. It makes Saena much more believable – which I'm hoping to accomplish in this story. I've read so many great SB fanfics that have been destroyed by Saena being the main source of conflict and she is a heartless, inhuman monster… which let's face it, rarely happens in real life! As for Lory's bosses, in this universe, the LME unit is under the Public Security Intelligence Agency, which is kind of like the CIA of Japan. The LME is just a specialized unit run by Lory, therefore, Lory has bosses in the PSIA. The Hizuri's are back in America still. And is Rick Delta? Muhahaha, what on earth could today's chapter mean? Teeheehee… Sho is going to be on the sidelines for a loooong time, but he will appear for the final act and his most growth will be during that time. :) Please, by all means! Ask all the questions you want! I'm always happy to answer (without giving spoilers, of course!) Thanks for supporting my whole ass…ing my chapters. LOL

 **Brennakai** – So… Did you squeal when Ren saw Delta's face? :3 hehehehe I'm guessing that wasn't the reaction you were expecting~! And to clarify, actually, Delta doesn't know that Kyoko is Setsu or that she is Saena's daughter. So she is actually safe – for the moment! Thanks for the reassurance that this isn't turning into an angst story. I'll have to check back with you for my Angst-meter after the next chapter. Haha As for the ice cream… maybe in a one shot ;) I'm thinking that if I'm still infatuated with this fandom after I'm done with this HUGE story – then I'm going to do a series of SB one shots.

 **-x-**

 **Thank you all for reading! If you have time, please don't forget to write a review, add a fave or an alert. It really makes my day! :3 Have a good two weeks, guys and gals!**


	28. Chapter 28

Hello loyal readers,

Unsure why, but my Word spellcheck seems to be on the fritz. Literally every word of this sentence is underlined in squiggly red. For example, Word is suggesting "Wunderlande", "Unterlande", and "unterbinde" for the word "underlined." So... if you know how to switch my Word back from its apparent new German setting, please do let me know. Otherwise, please excuse any typos in this chapter (with the exception of one typo, which was deliberate).

Happy Thanksgiving and ironically timed Black Friday to all my American peeps! I hope everyone was able to spend quality time with family as we all partook in gluttony one day and then commercialized greed the next. Lol

As I'm typing this, my husband and I are about 3 hours into a long drive back from a relative's house. It was a good time, but glad to be headed home. Back home to a new apartment and lots of unpacked boxes, since we also moved last week. So much to do, so little time!

Today's chapter is something I've gone over and redone at least 4-5 times. Like, heavy duty deleting and editing. Some scenes just come out; some scenes have a few birthing pains. This was one of the latter. Mostly because Kyoko and Ren are breaking out of their polite, strictly professional shells today. Trying to keep them in character while going from story point A to B, but also keeping them on track emotionally from point C to D was a very thin line to toe. Hopefully the result is satisfactoy. :)

Thank you all so much for reading, and until next time, enjoy!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH28**

"What started out as an already scandalous election cycle," the TV Tokyo reporter remarked as a roiling crowd gathered in the background, "has quickly turned into one of the most contentious elections in Japanese history."

Juxtaposed behind the crowd and the line police officers, stood the proud, unyielding tower of the Diet building.

"All of Japan is still in uproar over the unexpected split in the Diet between incumbent Prime Minister Ogata's National Japanese Party and Councillor Mogami Saena's New Change Party. The vote held yesterday on the Diet floor indicated that 57% of the House of Representatives voted for Prime Minister Ogata. However 61% of the House of Councillors voted for Councillor Mogami."

The reporter cocked an eyebrow at the camera, feigning serious concern.

"A split in the voting between houses has not occurred in Japan since 1995. While it has always been a possibility, many in the public are crying foul." The camera began to zoom in on the Diet building as the reporter continued his voiceover. "Over the past few months, rumors of political corruption have eroded the people's trust in the government. Now, that mistrust has reached a boiling point."

As the reporter continued his monologue, the Diet building faded out until other pre-recorded footage replaced it onscreen. Masses of angry college students marched through Todai's campus, holding signs and chanting. One protester, bearing a sloppily painted sign that read, "Down with Tyrant Ogata!" shook his sign emphatically at the cameraman before moving on.

Then, the news report returned to footage of hundreds of protesters swarming angrily in front of the Diet, chanting and waving signs threateningly at a line of police officers that lay between the people and the white marble steps of the Diet. Many of the signs had slogans such as, "Stop fixing the elections, NJP" and "The People stand by Saena" and "Death to NJP supporters". Though stoic in demeanor, the officers sometimes shifted from one foot to the other behind their flimsy metal barricades, gazing tensely out into the crowds.

The footage cut away to an interview with a young woman wearing a down jacket with fur trim around the hood. In the background, people continued to chant and wave signs in the air.

"It's just incredible, you know?" The 30-year-old woman remarked indignantly as steam rose from her mouth in the cold air of winter, "Those rotten trash politicians fixed this election. I don't know anybody who voted for Ogata's party, and yet this happened? Don't give me that crap!"

The camera cut back to the news reporter who solemnly addressed the audience.

"Fueling the riots and in spite of evidence to the contrary, online forums such as 2chan host many who are loudly decrying the National Japanese Party, accusing its members of fixing the elections in its favor. There are few who disagree, but those who do face swift retaliation from the online community."

Images of screen captures floated across the "TV Tokyo" logo background, showing Twitter replies, forum posts, and messaging apps. The usernames were blocked out, but the messages were consistent.

One message read, "I voted for the National Japanese Party. I think that PM Ogata did a good job reforming the tax system to promote the growth of the middle class!" - and faced the replies, "It's people like you who allow rotten politics. Traitor to Japan!" and "If u were smrt, u wud've voted for Saena. Go back 2 the whole u crawled out of." and "Go die! I hope your house burns lol!"

The news reporter's voiceover continued. "Some have even claimed that voicing support for the National Japanese Party has cost them their jobs and personal safety."

The scene switched to another interview; this time it was a man in his early-forties, but his face had been blurred out and his voice had been altered.

"Before the election, I had gone to listen to a speech by my local Representative who is a member of the NJP. But I think someone was filming the crowd." The man continued, "After the election, someone on the internet got ahold of that recording and used it to identify people in the crowd. Many people – from all around Japan – contacted my manager yesterday. They demanded that I be fired. The company is small. This town is small. To avoid bad publicity, I was let go. Someone also put my home address online. Today, I had to move in with a friend because I was receiving death threats in my mailbox."

"What are your thoughts about what has happened to you?" The reporter on-site asked into the microphone before turning it back toward the man.

The man cleared his throat, plainly fighting overwhelming emotions. "I think… that Japan has changed a lot. I think that it's just very difficult to have an open conversation nowadays… How do you converse when everyone only wants to yell?"

Transitioning back to the opening shot, the reporter continued solemnly, "It has only been one day since the election results have thrown the Japanese political world and the public into chaos. In nine days, the fate of our nation will be decided. Who will emerge the victor? Was the election fixed? Has the Japanese public crossed a line? Only time will tell…"

 _[Due to PR concerns by TV Tokyo board members, this news segment was pulled before its broadcasting slot. It was replaced by a feature piece about the escalating tensions between North Korea and the United States.]_

 **-x-**

Trying to make as little noise as possible, Kyoko slowly, slowly set the glass bowl upside-down on the bookshelf. Trapped inside under the glass lay a small electronic cylinder the size of a pencil eraser.

Careful not to jiggle the bowl, Kyoko reached down for the towel she had prepared. Nestling the towel above the bowl, she very meticulously ensured that no area of the bowl was unmuffled by the cloth. Finally satisfied with her handiwork, she turned away from the bookshelf that housed the fourth and final listening bug and ran a quick check on the other three. All were sufficiently covered.

A final sweep with Yashiro's bug-finder confirmed that she hadn't missed any.

Neither Manaka nor Delta would hear anything of her upcoming conversation with Ren. Assuming that Ren was even willing to speak with her.

As Kyoko walked back to the bedroom, an anxious lump had returned to her throat. She tried to swallow it but to no avail. It was a desperate situation.

Something was definitely wrong with Tsuruga Ren.

Not only had he completely discarded his Cain persona while literally standing in the same room as their enemy, but he had also lapsed into a thick, brooding silence in Konoe's car on the way back to their apartment. Even more worrisome, Cain had stopped responding to Setsu ever since they had entered the door of the Heels' home.

Now, Ren would only sit as still as a statue on the edge of his bed, that cold, murderous look growing in intensity with each passing hour.

Setsu had tried everything to snap her brother out of it. Well, everything short of throwing herself on him – but despite how dire the situation was, Kyoko wasn't sure if she could quite stomach that tactic just yet. But she would be willing to try it – if this failed.

And this could very well fail.

As Kyoko gazed at herself in the bathroom mirror, having settled Setsu's wig on its stand under the sink, her hand went up to hesitantly touch her auburn hair.

If Setsu couldn't reach Cain, why would Mogami Kyoko be able to reach Tsuruga Ren?

She had considered trying to allow Ren to work out this issue on his own. After all, she was only his kouhai; he was the experienced one, the clever one, the dependable one. Maybe she was just sticking her nose into her senpai's business. She could just be pestering him.

Years of social grooming in Japan's strictly hierarchical society made the knot of worry in her stomach twist uncomfortably at the thought of confronting her senior. But…

The President had warned her. And on the ferris wheel, Ren himself had asked for her help.

Approaching the bedroom door, Kyoko felt the nervous lump squirm itself higher in her throat. Gulping, she raised a hand to the doorknob, then hesitated. Closing her eyes tightly, she breathed in and out, gathering her confidence.

"Don't lose, Tsuruga-san," she whispered to herself, more of a prayer than a thought. "You're not allowed to lose."

Kyoko pushed the door open.

As she suspected, Ren was still sitting at the end of the bed, hands gripped tightly in his lap, head bowed and shoulders as tense as a bowstring.

"T-san…?" Haltingly, she walked in and tried to get his attention. "T-san?"

She reached out a hand to touch his shoulder. For a second, she worried that if she touched him, with how agitated and strained he seemed, he might judo throw her on instinct.

Readying herself, Kyoko placed her fingertips gingerly on his shoulder. "T-san?"

Ren jumped, hand whipping around to grab her wrist. Startled, Kyoko flinched back on instinct. Then her partner's eyes seemed to register her, clearing for a moment.

"T-san…?" She murmured again, eyes searching his face.

Agent T blinked at her in confusion. Then his expression shifted quickly to alarm. "S-Setsu–?"

Slowly, as if dealing with a wild animal, Kyoko slipped her hand out of Ren's hold and shook her head. "We're safe. I took care of the bugs."

The dark-haired agent didn't reply, but merely turned to face forward again, this time hanging his head over his clasped hands. Strategically, Kyoko settled into the armchair in the corner of the room, not directly in front of Ren but certainly still in his line of sight. Clearly, she wanted to talk.

However, as the minutes of silence ticked by, clearly, he did not.

'Well,' Kyoko reasoned to herself, 'He's already surpassed two of my expectations: he didn't ignore me again, and he didn't throw me across the room on accident. Just do it, Kyoko!'

She hesitated a couple of times before steeling herself, looking up at him sharply, and spluttering out desperately, "T-san… What's going on?"

Expression instantly furious, Ren looked off to the side.

"It's nothing." His voice was the dangerous kind of quiet. A calm before the storm.

This clearly fabricated denial stabbed at her heart. Kyoko bit her lip. Maybe she was overstepping their professional boundaries after all, but… something needed to be done. And she couldn't be of any use if he continued to keep her in the dark.

Before her courage could fail her, Kyoko moved.

Bowing deeply in her chair, hands clutched in her lap, Kyoko squeezed her eyes shut and blurted out, "Please forgive my impertinence, but that, back there with Delta. _That_ was not 'nothing'! _This_ is not 'nothing'–!"

"Then, it's nothing you have to concern yourself with, _Junior_ Agent M."

Frozen in shocked horror, Kyoko could not raise her head. She could only feel her heart break bit by bit as he stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him.

Kyoko flinched as she heard the bathroom door also slam shut. A moment later, she could hear the shower water begin to run.

Her eyes slowly opened, but she did not lift her head. The threat of tears prickled at the corners of her eyes.

Rejection… It was so familiar, like a heavy stone that had been carved to slip right into its usual slot in her heart. Her mother… Shotaro… and now…

Kyoko just stared blankly at her lap, the emotions washing over her. What use was there in doing anything? Nothing she had done, no effort she had expended, no amount of pleading had ever kept those she cared for from leaving her behind.

'He's just the same as everyone else...' A small, insidious voice whispered in the back of her mind. 'First he'll push you away. Then he'll abandon you, betray you, despise you... You were expecting this all along... Why are you so surprised now?'

Her grip tightened in her lap, hands bunching around the leather of Setsu's pants. Kyoko knew why she was surprised. Because she had hoped against hope that somehow... Ren would be different. After getting over their initial differences, her bond with Tsuruga-san had been–

'An act,' the little, doubting voice hissed. 'He was secretly sick of you all along.'

Yes… He had to have been sick of the useless newbie kouhai who showed up at his living quarters at odd hours of the night requesting acting lessons…

(That warm smile when she showed him the Princess Rosa necklace though…)

He was probably frustrated with her when she hadn't been the greatest temporary tech support.

(However, when he got sick, he had held her hand and called her 'Kyoko' so tenderly while feverishly delirious…)

He had even avoided her with no explanation for weeks leading up to the gala.

But then after she had encountered her mother, he had held her tightly, caressing her back as she clung to him…

All that time laughing with him and Yashiro in the LME cafeteria or the proud looks he gave her after a hard day of cultural training with Maria or his gentle smiles when she woke him up in the Heels' apartment or… or…!

Kyoko shook her head, finally straightening in her chair.

Though Agent T put on a brilliant act, as his partner, Kyoko had become able to usually pick up on when he was acting. Tsuruga-san's gentleman mask was an act. Ren, in all of those moments and memories... That was not acting!

However, this angry stranger was certainly not an act either, so… maybe this was Ren too. Kyoko of all people knew that pain and a troubled past could be hidden from the world. But they could also be risen above. Ren himself had helped her at least to deal with her past. It was her turn to help him.

She couldn't let her own insecurities scare her into abandoning him when he needed her the most.

Eyes shining fiercely, Kyoko leapt up from her chair and marched out of the room, throwing the bedroom door open before her. However as she strode down the hall, her footsteps slowed until she finally stopped in front of the bathroom.

Well, she was determined to help him. But… How?

Wavering now, Kyoko began to pace back and forth next to the bathroom. Continuing the act as Setsu hadn't worked. Asking politely had been a bust.

 _'_ _Well, I suppose you can try giving him a kick in the seat of the pants.'_

Kyoko slowed her pacing. Squinting, she pondered Lory's words long and hard. Then, shaking her head, Kyoko decided that the President had meant it _metaphorically_. Not _literally_. Certainly, it had to be! Just picturing herself trying to kick Ren in his behind…

"..."

It was all mosaic-ed. Not even _her_ imagination could comprehend that situation. So… 'tough love'? Was that what the President had really meant? She was still slightly worried, but President Takarada's uncanny ability to understand his agents' inner clockwork was unparalleled.

Now nodding to herself, Kyoko approached the door again. Borrowing some of Setsu's boldness, she knocked. "T-san? May I–? I mean– We need to talk."

Silence. The shower ran in the background, but without the variance of sound that would indicate he was actually in the shower and using the water. Kyoko felt her concern begin to meld into annoyance. So he was ignoring her now? Hah! What was he? A teenager, locking himself in the bathroom to avoid chores?

She knocked again, louder this time.

"Go away." This time there was a response!

Kyoko felt a spark of indignation. At Edo Land, Ren had asked for her help! And now he was rejecting it? What was this guy? A _tsundere_? A _deretsun_?

This was definitely like a child throwing a tantrum. Well if he was going to play the part of a child…

"No!" Kyoko snapped at the door, her motherly instinct rising in her chest. "I'm going to give you to the count of three, and then you're going to open this door. I'll force it open if I have to!"

The door would probably stay locked, but still, the tactic was worth a try. If needed, she'd kick the door down. After all, it wasn't as if Ren were actually using the shower. He was just hiding.

"One…"

Silence.

"Two…"

He continued to ignore her. Fine then!

"Three!" She proclaimed, twisted on the doorknob, and rushed forward.

It wasn't locked.

The door flung open, dumping Kyoko inside the steamy bathroom. As she fell to the floor, Kyoko's brain processed two things. One, Ren wasn't in the shower, just as she had predicted. He was only leaning over the sink. And two, contrary to her predictions, he was shirtless, apparently having paused in the process of undressing.

"GYAH!" Caught off-guard without Setsu's protection or her 'maid spirit', Kyoko instinctively shrieked and scrambled backward, trying to use her hands to simultaneously hide her face and crabwalk away.

"Again! Why are you always half-naked? Have you no decency? Have you no pity on my maidenly eyes?"

As she ranted, circumstance forgotten, there was silence… then a puff of laughter. Kyoko stilled, frozen in the midst of trying to curl into a ball on the floor.

Above her, she heard Agent T remark wryly, "Who's the indecent one? Always barging in while I'm in the bathroom?"

Instantly on the defensive, Kyoko scrambled up and skewered him with her strictest glare, his partial nakedness forgotten. "Well, the first time, I was just making sure that some assassin hadn't strangled you in the shower! And this time, if you hadn't ignored me–!"

Recalling why they were in this situation, Kyoko clamped her mouth shut. The teasing look on Ren's face transformed back into a heavy frown, eyes sliding away.

Glancing down, Kyoko adopted a seiza stance, her hands fidgeting in her lap. "I… It may be selfish of me… But I just want to try and help, T-san…"

Kyoko noticed the flicker of movement as Ren's hand went to clutch the watch on his left wrist. "Mogami-san. There's nothing to help. Just stop it."

"T-san, please–!"

"No," Ren said, his voice becoming final, the anger rising again in his eyes. He made a move to exit through the door behind her.

Now desperate, Kyoko was up in a flash, arms spread to block him from moving around her. She had run out of options. Plus, she had this amorphous, foreboding feeling that if he walked out of this conversation, if she let him, he would go somewhere far, far away and would never return.

Her hands were trembling. She couldn't stop them.

"M-san. Move."

"No." It came out a broken whisper.

Ren's glare sharpened. He strode forward until he was towering over her. "You have no right."

It hurt. But it would hurt worse if Tsuruga-san lost.

"No…" Kyoko repeated again. As she continued to speak, her voice grew stronger, more confident. Her eyes flashed up, and she met Ren, glare for glare. "I may not be a senior agent. I may just be a newbie… But I am not a fool!"

Apparently shocked at this new, disobedient version of Kyoko, Agent T seemed almost startled, taking a step back. Pressing her advantage, Kyoko stomped forward a step, poking a thin finger into his chest.

"I may not be much, but after being your partner, I know you the best!" She snapped, "I can see that something is destroying you from the inside out! And I demand to know what is going on!"

Kyoko was out of breath, panting as if she had just run a marathon. Tears prickled unshed at the corners of her eyes. Ren stared at her, frozen.

Kyoko felt one of the tears track down her face and angrily smudged it away with the palm of her hand. She continued glaring at Ren… until she realized that he was still shirtless. Ducking her gaze, her face already aflame, she snatched her hand back from prodding him.

As the silence stretched on, a feeling of regret and horror burbled up from within her. She had gotten carried away… He had already pushed her away once today... Was he going to abandon her now?

"I can't tell you…"

Kyoko winced, readying her heart for the inevitable rejection. Then his soft, quavering reply registered. She glanced up, unsure if she had heard him correctly.

He was looking at the floor, cradling the wrist with the watch. He repeated, "I can't tell you."

Concern instantly pricked her heart, overriding her fear at this mild refusal. He looked so forlorn and empty, just like that time he had spoken with Bo. "Why?"

Ren sighed heavily and stared at the floor. "Because you won't understand."

"Why won't I?"

Her partner winced.

He was afraid. The realization struck Kyoko like a lightning bolt. But afraid of what?

"Tsuruga-san… Please…" She took a step forward, her voice a whisper. Her hand hovered uncertainly a hairsbreadth above his arm.

There was silence, and as the seconds ticked by, Kyoko began to withdraw her hand, her heart regaining its familiar ache. Then he spoke again.

"It's selfish, but I need you to promise me…" Ren's gaze rose to meet hers for the briefest of moments before darting away.

"Promise…?" Hope renewed, Kyoko perked up.

"Promise me that you..." For a man who stood at 190 cm, Ren looked small and vulnerable in that moment. "That you won't turn your back on me after I tell you."

'So, he's afraid of me?' Kyoko thought, confused. 'Of me rejecting him?'

Aloud, she coaxed, "Tsuruga-san. You're my partner and my…" She dropped her hand back to her side. "My senpai. I could never turn my back on you."

"I… I don't…" Ren took a deep, shaky breath in and out. He shot her a small, uncertain smile. A ghost of the old, familiar Agent T reappeared. "Where would I even begin?"

"Well…" Returning his small smile, Kyoko prompted gently, "At the beginning, I guess…"

After another long, heavy pause, Ren uttered a dry, ironic laugh. "Oh, what the hell… I suppose that you're right."

Kyoko nodded as Ren twisted the shower water off and grabbed his shirt off the floor. The two agents settled into seats on the bathroom floor, backs up against the wall and under-sink cabinets. Then, he took a deep breath and began.

"My real name is Kuon Hizuri. I was born in America to two of the most famous agents in the CIA..."

 **-x-**

* * *

 **JAPANESE NOTES:**

 **National Japanese Party** – Just like the New Change Party, this political party is completely made up.

 **Todai –** Japanese abbreviation for Tokyo University (most prestigious university in Japan)

" **whole"** – Yes, I know I misspelled the word "hole".

 **Tsundere** – Stereotype of a personality in shojou manga who is outwardly "tsun" – cold and blunt – but in private can be "dere" – lovey-dovey/ affectionate. Ex: Taiga Aisaka (Toradora) and Ayuzawa Misaki (Kaichou wa Maid-sama). Hence, Kyoko is joking that instead of being "tsun" first and "dere" second, Ren is switching the order, making him a "deretsun".

 **Seiza –** Formal Japanese sitting posture. Ex: Kyoko doing tea ceremony while she competed with Ruriko.

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG (For those who don't know, this section is my response to 5+ of the most interesting reviews of the most recent chapter)**

 **Shizuhoe** – Haha, gotcha! Glad you got at least one of you with that twist! And is Rick Delta? Is Delta Toudou? Is he another SB character? Is he an OC? Who knows~! ;) And I know right? Not to dive too deeply into politics, but even though I usually side with one party over the other (not going to say which), this past election and the resulting aftermath has been difficult. If you get a chance, read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. He wrote it back in 1985, but it's like a Nostradamus-like prediction about our current society that binge-watches Netflix and refuses to engage in real issues, instead choosing to simply and demonize in lieu of understanding and compromising. Hope you enjoyed today's chapter! Let me know what you thought!

 **Guest** – Is Delta Kyoko's father? Is he Toudou? Is he Rick? Is he Koga? Is he an OC? Who knows~ ;) That's a good guess though! I hadn't thought of that haha Keep guessing!

 **MWEH** – I'm so sad that the English version of this month's chapter isn't up yet… I'm IMPATIENT, Impatient Scans! Just kidding… Not really. Haha But looking at the raws, it seems as though Kyoko is definitely pissed in that final panel. She's a woman on a mission, and there's no way that this is going to end in Kimiko's favor. (Muahaha!) And yes, Princess Ogata the cinnamon bun! I LOL'ed at your comment when I read it. Poor Ogata, indeed! On a separate note, actually, Kyoko has never met Toudou in this AU. I'll leave you with that little tidbit. ;) Thanks for your theories! Teehee, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

 **brennakai** – Haha, oh man! I totally should have had Kyoko kiss him to bring him back! Ugh, opportunity missed. TT_TT Haha, jkjk. One day, my dear brennakai, one day… Thanks for having reasonable expectations of me :) Just to clarify, Kimiko knows and has reported that Kyoko (Sho's childhood friend) works for LME, but she doesn't know about Setsu and Cain, hence she hadn't made the connection. Let me know how I did, O amazing Angst-o-meter! My first three rewrites were because Ren just seemed like a bigger and bigger jerk-face. Tightrope, indeed! Thanks for the praise and encouragement! It means a lot to me to hear that I'm not completely letting the fanbase down haha! As for original stories, I have had an idea knocking around in my brain for the last… decade… haha, but still holding onto it because I feel like I haven't matured enough as a person to be able to say everything that I want to with the premise. Maybe for NaNoWriMo in like… another decade. Haha! Thanks brennakai! Really appreciate you :D

* * *

 **Thank you all for the reviews and faves and alerts! I'm so excited to delve into Ren's flashback in two weeks! See you all then!**


	29. Chapter 29

Hello loyal readers,

It's weeks like the past two that make me glad I am uploading only every other week. Still trying to adjust to my 2 jobs plus still unpacking my apartment (in addition to trying to be an adult and keep my fridge stocked with things like milk and eggs lol) - basically, I don't have much time or energy for writing nowadays. Luckily these next few chapters have been flowing pretty well with minimal pain. I'm excited for you all to read them!

Today, we have a little bit of time with Kuu and Juliena. Also, Rick! I know that my version of Rick is not 100% faithful to the manga (Manga Rick is a lot stricter with Kuon). But I had a fun time writing him and Tina. Also, this is only my crazy head canon, but I believe that Rick is at least partially Japanese-American. Maybe it's his flowing dark hair. Lol

Enjoy the read!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH29**

 **-MANY YEARS AGO-**

 **-LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA-**

"Kuon… you can't keep on like this…"

Now Kuon knew he was in _real_ trouble. His dad had put his forks down – _both_ of them – and that never bode well. It was even more ominous because Kuu was ignoring a perfectly good steaming plate of omelets (12 to be exact) sitting right in front of him.

Suddenly not feeling hungry, Kuon put his own fork down. On instinct, the 15 year-old turned his head to the side so his black eye would be less visible to his father sitting at the head of the table. Unfortunately, by turning, Kuon was staring straight at his mother across from him. Juliena's concerned gaze caused Kuon to drop his green eyes to his plate.

"Kuon," his father prompted again. "I know that the early recruit program didn't work out, but you running around wild isn't helping–."

Unable to raise his head, Kuon could only glare at his eggs. Why was his dad dragging up ancient history? So what! Those stuffy suits at the CIA kicked him out of the interview process. They thought he was a security liability in the field, a moocher trying to take advantage of his parents' prestige, a source of potential resentment among the other recruits… All they were _really_ saying was that no matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, his parents' shadow would always cut him off from his dreams.

"–There are other ways you can get involved with the CIA," Kuu continued, oblivious to his son's thoughts, and shifted into dumb-father mode, "After all! Our son's handsome face, talent, and massive intellect shouldn't go to waste!"

As his father went on, Kuon felt a familiar rage growing in his breast. Who cared what his parents thought! No one else would give him a chance. It was hopeless–!

A soft, gentle touch on his hand snapped him from his thoughts. Blinking, he looked up to see that his mother and father had each placed their hands over his. Only then did Kuon note the crumpled napkin that he had grasped in a strangle hold in his hands.

The rage flooded out of him as quickly as it had come. Dropping his hands to his lap, Kuon looked down. "Sorry…"

He missed the concerned look his parents exchanged.

"Kuon…" Kuu had gotten up and was now kneeling next to his son's chair. The blonde teen could only stare at his open hands as if they belonged to a stranger.

"Kuon," his mother implored. "Please listen to your father. The door's not shut yet."

"There's still hope, you know." Kuu gently chucked a finger under Kuon's chin. The blonde teen looked up. His father gave him a mischievous smile. "I didn't raise my son to give up so fast!"

After a second of hesitation, Kuon nodded once and shakily returned his father's smile. "Right."

At that moment, the doorbell rang. Brightening, Juliena got up from her seat to answer the door. Kuu stood up and laughed, bold and brilliant. He grinned down at Kuon. "Just in time! I have a surprise for you, son."

"It's so good to see you!" Juliena's voice carried through the halls as she led their guest through the house toward the dining room. "Goodness, you've grown!"

"It'd be a real problem if I hadn't grown in five years!" The guest laughed, a strong, clear sound. Kuon perked up, leaning in his seat so he could see who had his parents in such a good mood.

His mother cleared the doorway first, and behind her followed a young man in his mid-twenties. The man's long-sleeved button-up shirt was a zany floral pattern tucked into dark-wash jeans. His black hair, straight and shoulder-length, was parted down the middle above intelligent, smiling brown eyes.

"Hey! You made it!" Kuu strode across the room and swept the guest into a great bear hug.

"Kuu!" The man merely laughed, hands held up in a paltry defense. "Hold on, you're going to strangle me!"

"As if _I_ could kill someone like _you_!" Kuon's father clapped the man heartily on the back and turned back to his confused son. Shaking the dark-haired guest by the shoulder, Kuu grinned at the blonde teen. "Kuon, this is Rick."

Rick finally broke free and stepped forward, still laughing, and extended his hand to Kuon. The teen slipped out of his chair and gripped Rick's hand, hesitant. The man shook his hand firmly. "How are you, Kuon? It's nice to finally meet you."

Kuon felt a smile twitch at the corner of his lips. This guy's smile was infectious. "Nice to meet you too."

Coming up from behind Rick and clapping him again on the shoulder, Kuu grinned at the two of them. "Rick is an old friend from the CIA. We've all worked together more than a dozen times."

"And he was only a cute little teenager when we started," Juliena interjected, reaching forward to pinch Rick by the cheek. "He was still as good as any agent twice his age!"

"Now, he's all grown up," Kuu finished. The pride beaming off his father's face at this man stirred a feeling of disquiet in Kuon's stomach.

But Rick simply waved the Hizuri's away. He cocked his head to the side and regarded Kuon. "Don't listen to these guys. They're talking about ancient history. You ready to go, kid?"

Kuon blinked. "Go?"

"Actually, Rick…" Kuu stepped forward, rubbing the back of his head. "We hadn't gotten to talk to Kuon about it yet."

"Talk to me about what?" The teen frowned, instantly on guard.

"Now, Kuon," Juliena swept to his side, kneeling to look up at him. "It's going to be a great opportunity. Rick has agreed to take you along with him on his missions to shadow."

"Shadow?!"

"Yeah," Rick threw Kuon a big thumbs up. "I'm in the CIA division that shuts down international smuggling."

"Smuggling?!"

…But that was so...so…

"It's not boring!" Rick interjected, wagging a finger at him. Kuon eyed him skeptically. The dark-haired man's shoulders slumped. Clearly, he was familiar with this conversation. He repeated dejectedly, "It's not boring!"

"Kuon," Kuu placed his hand on his son's shoulder. "This could be a great opportunity for you to gain some experience in the field. Who knows! With this under your belt, maybe the recruit program will reconsider you next year."

His gaze sliding down and away, Kuon stepped back from his dad's hand. They just decided this on their own. If he did this, then he would just be walking right into the trap of those stuffy suited bastards. The recruiters would be right. He wouldn't get anywhere without his parents' help.

' _You think you can do whatever you want just because your parents are Kuu and Juliena?'_

"Hey, kid."

Rick's voice snapped Kuon out of his reverie. Glancing up, Kuon was confused because the man was no longer standing in front of him.

"Stop over-thinking it."

Behind him?

But before Kuon could whirl around, a cloth was shoved against his mouth and nose. An acrid whiff of chemicals met his sharp, surprised inhale.

Instantly, Kuon felt his knees buckle. With his last inkling of strength, he reached out to grasp the hand under the cloth, twisting his arm sharply – a move his father had taught him to break an abductor's fingers.

The man – Rick? – merely parried, swiftly grasping Kuon's own arm and forcing him to drop his grip on the fingers. Strong arms caught him before he fell.

"Heh, that's a nice move kid." An infectious grin swam in the air. Like the Cheshire Cat.

"Take care of him, Rick." Dad…?

"Of course! If anything happens, it'd be over my dead body–"

Darkness.

 **-x-**

Rattling, jostling. Bumpy. The ground was bumpy. But not like it had bumps, but that it went bump, bump, bump… Up and down.

Wasn't there something he was forgetting? It was important, right…? Everything was dark, but… it was important. What was it again?

A small girl in a white dress crouched at the bank of a crystal stream. She glanced up and instantly caught sight of him. He loved the way just his presence could spark that smile across her face.

 _'_ _Co~rn!_ _'_

Gasping, Kuon woke. He was lying on some kind of carpeted floor, but it was bobbing up and down… Not rhythmically like an ocean but rapidly jostling, like a car on a road. He raised his head slowly, fighting against a wave of minor nausea and disorientation before sitting up completely. Some kind of central aisle was clear, but on two sides, electronic panels housing dozens of buttons and dials boxed him in. Wires protruded from the panels and tangled in messy piles on the carpet.

"Where…?"

Straight ahead were a pair of white, metal doors. Glancing behind him, Kuon noticed the back of a row of car seats. So he was in a car? A van?

As if reading his thoughts, a voice called out, "Oh? You're finally awake?"

Bumping his head on the roof of the van as he stood, Kuon made his way to the front of the car, swaying with the vehicle as it jounced along the road. He steadied himself on the headrests before peering into the van's cab.

The passenger seat was empty. In the driver's seat sat a dark-haired man with a loud, floral-print shirt.

Suddenly everything clicked.

Kuon stumbled back a step. "K-K-Kidnapper!"

Rick – if that was even his _real_ name – sighed. "Calm down, kid."

Pointing a shaking finger at his abductor, Kuon stammered out, "I will _not_ be calm! How dare you take me from my own house! How did you steal me past my parents? What did you do to them?"

"Like I said," Rick continued, his voice growing slightly peeved. "Just calm down. Everyone's fine."

" _I'm_ not fine!" Kuon yelped as he tripped sideways when Rick took a particularly hard right turn.

"Hmm? Oh yeah!"

Something was tossed over the seat. On instinct, Kuon caught it. The plastic wrap of the mystery item crinkled in his hands as he turned it over. It was a squishy black triangle with squiggly lettering on the wrapping's label. Kuon couldn't read the label as it was clearly written in another language.

"What is this?"

Rick piped up. "Breakfast! I took you before you could finish your food this morning. Besides–" he held up a stuffed plastic supermarket bag "–we needed snacks for our stakeout."

"Stakeout?" Cautiously, Kuon opened the plastic packaging and sniffed inside. He immediately recoiled. What the–?

"Yeah," Rick responded as he produced his own triangle package and ripped it open with his teeth. "Japanese gang in Little Tokyo is smuggling fake contraband. We're just observing them for now. Seeing if we can draw out the big fish."

"Speaking of fish…" Kuon muttered, eyeing the offensive 'food' item in his hands.

Rick glanced back at him. "What? Don't like spicy fish roe? I'll trade you. This one's pickled plum!" He dangled his triangle behind him toward Kuon.

" _Pickled_ … _plum_?!" Kuon balked. Those two words just didn't seem to go together. What was it? An oxymoron?

"What? Don't want to trade?" Rick shrugged and brought the triangle back to his mouth. Kuon watched in sick fascination as the man took an enthusiastic bite. "Geez, it's just onigiri. You'd think that you weren't even half Japanese the way you're acting."

"Onigiri?" Kuon repeated. "Like rice balls?"

Cautiously, he peeled back the green-black covering. Lo-and-behold, there was rice after all. Kuon supposed that the green-black layer was seaweed then.

"You've never had onigiri before?" Rick called out. "What has Kuu been doing? He's a shame to all us Japanese-Americans!"

"Dad's riceballs don't look anything like _this_!"

There was a pensive pause, then Rick muttered something that sounded like, "Yeah, Kuu's onigiri probably look like bowling balls or something."

Kuon froze. So that _wasn't_ how rice balls were supposed to look?

Then Kuon shook his head, clearing his thoughts. This guy had just come in and swept him up at his own pace! What the hell?

"Hey! Don't go changing the subject!" Scrambling to his feet again, Kuon popped his head between the two headrests. He pointed an accusing finger at Rick. "You still kidnapped me! Take me back home!"

"I can't."

Spluttering, Kuon demanded, "What?! Why not?!"

A grin ghosted across Rick's lips. "'Cause we're here."

With that, Rick stepped heavily on the brakes. Kuon, caught off guard, toppled forward through the gap in the seats. He ended up with his body partially wedged between them.

Rick merely put the van into park and laughed heartily as he watched Kuon squirm and struggle to dig himself out from between the chairs.

Irked, Kuon just pointed a finger at the man. "Child endangerment! That's what this is!"

His laughter tapering off, Rick wiped a tear from one eye. "C'mon kid. You can't have the best of both worlds. Either you stay a kid or get to grow up into a man."

Pouting as he finally plopped back onto the floor of the van, Kuon crossed his arms and glared at his captor. But Rick's smile and the ridiculous situation prompted a small quirk to cross the teen's lips.

"Fine! Then, quit calling me 'kid!'"

Rick blinked a moment before a slow grin spread over his face. "Well, sure thing then, Kuon."

 **-x-**

"So this gang is just smuggling fake – what? – Watches? Purses? Does the CIA even take care of that stuff?" Kuon griped, but still followed Rick's directions to pull on the bulky headphone set. "Who cares?"

"Who cares?" Rick was running the cord from Kuon's headset to a bank of panels. The CIA agent paused, reading labels for a moment before finding the correct slot for the plug. "Well, our government for one. You know – the government you so desperately want to work for."

Unamused, Kuon just shot Rick a flat look.

Oblivious, Rick continued on, settling in to his own seat next to Kuon and plugging in his own headset. "The Japanese government also wants to shut down the operation. Good relations with the U.S. and all that."

Watching Rick press the power button on the monitor before them, Kuon just sunk further into his seat. He muttered to himself. "You lied. This is definitely going to be boring."

"It's not boring!" Rick shot back, fiddling with a knob on the side of the monitor as the picture came onscreen. "Plus, I promised I'd bring you back to your parents safe and sound. Do you think I would really bring you to a dangerous place on our first outing?"

It made sense. But still… Shooting the agent a sulky glance, Kuon straightened up in his seat as he watched the monitor.

At first, Kuon thought it was just running footage of an outdoor café, but oddly the frame bobbed and weaved, occasionally tilting slightly up and down. Then, a woman's hand came into view, reaching out to pick up the teacup on the little table in front of her. Kuon realized he was watching footage from a hidden body-cam of sorts.

On Kuon's left, Rick had finished hooking up his equipment and brought the wrap-around mic of his headset down to his mouth. "Romeo to Tango, sorry I'm late."

The camera ducked down as the woman's hand came up with the teacup. Over his headphones, Kuon heard a woman's voice, obviously annoyed.

"So nice of you to finally join us, Romeo."

"Just wanted to make sure you got your daily caffeine first. Wouldn't want you in a bad mood," Rick bantered back. "You ready?"

"Thought you'd never ask." The woman stood, the camera bobbing with her motion as she stooped to place a couple of bills on the table before exiting the café. Judging by the height, Kuon guessed that the camera was hidden in a necklace.

As the woman walked down a series of streets, Rick cupped a hand over his mic and turned to Kuon to explain. "The Feds tipped us off to this little operation a few months back. It was too… international for their jurisdiction, so they handed it over to us."

Still confused, Kuon tipped his head to the side. "I thought the FBI was in charge of counterfeit goods…"

"Well…" Then Rick's eyes caught movement onscreen and he turned, bringing his mic back down.

'Tango' had arrived at the entrance of a grimy, hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant in the heart of Little Tokyo. Her hand came out to pull open the door and a chime sounded over her head as she entered the establishment. A hunched-over, elderly Asian woman stood at a counter near the door, and she gave the agent a once-over. Smiling she bowed and came out from behind the counter, pointing with a crooked finger to the empty tables.

"Table for one?" She asked in heavily accented English, bobbing her head agreeably.

"Actually," the undercover agent responded as she leaned over to whisper to the old woman, "I'm here to see Saifu-san."

Without a shred of hesitation, the old woman bowed her head and smiling, motioned behind herself to the kitchen double doors. Playing along, the agent bowed at the waist before continuing through the empty restaurant to the kitchen.

As the woman pushed through the double doors, Kuon noted that the kitchen was also essentially empty. A sullen-looking man stood at a sink in the back and washed dishes. The man glanced up when Tango entered. Bowing slightly in respect, the agent murmured a questioning, "Saifu-san?"

The man merely pointed to a wooden door, warped from the steam of the kitchen and half-hidden behind boxes of styrofoam cups and take-out containers. Then he went back to washing dishes.

Striding across the kitchen, the woman's gaze went down and Kuon watched her hand turn the flimsy metal handle as she opened the door and squeezed behind the boxes.

At first the monitor went dark as the camera struggled to adjust its brightness settings to accommodate for the sudden low light. As the camera shifted, Kuon could make out that the woman was walking down a dirty concrete staircase to some lower level of the building.

Eventually the staircase let out into a short, dark hallway with a metal door at the end. The woman rapped her knuckles against it, the echoes clanging ominously in the enclosed space. Kuon wasn't even there, but he still felt claustrophobic.

After a few moments, the door opened a crack, limited by a chain lock on the other side. A partial face peered out at the woman, giving her a quick up and down glance. Apparently, the face liked what it saw, because the door shut, and Kuon heard a muffled rattle as the chain was unhooked.

As the door swung open, Kuon swallowed a knot in his throat, suddenly nervous for this unknown agent. She stepped through the door, her heels clacking on the concrete floor. Greeting her on the other side was the doorkeeper, a scruffy Asian man of average height wearing jeans and an ill-fitting black t-shirt. He avoided eye contact and bobbed his head in a hasty bow before ushering the woman into the room.

Inside the room bustled a handful of raggedly dressed Asian women and men. One of the women, dressed more pristinely than the others broke away from her task and approached the agent.

Playing the part of a rich American consumer, Tango giggled nervously. "Hello. I – uh – was referred here by one of my friends? She said you have the best Prada bags for the best prices?"

"Yes, good price. Very cheap." The middle-aged lady hurriedly nodded her head and shooed the agent toward a seat at the only table in the room, a rickety wooden affair with a wad of newspapers stacked under one of the legs to balance it.

"Personal? Retail? Wholesale?" The woman asked brusquely before turning to bark orders in an unknown language at her workers who began pulling a myriad of purses and watches and sunglasses to put on the table in front of the agent.

Surprisingly, Kuon noted that the agent stayed upright to pan the camera over the room of workers instead of focusing on the contraband in front of her. The agent responded smoothly, "Retail. Boutiques on Rodeo Drive and Sunset Boulevard."

"Mmmm," the other woman mused. She pushed a series of purses at the agent.

Kuon continued to watch as the two women haggled over items and prices, the agent choosing three purses, five wallets, and two pairs of sunglasses before the woman had one of her workers come and bundle up the purchases. The agent counted out a stack of cash before thanking the woman and collecting her goods. She took one last slow pan of the room before turning and walking past the door guard and up the stairs to the restaurant.

As Tango bowed to the elderly restaurant hostess and exited the building back into the sunlight, Kuon let out a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. Beside him, he heard Rick similarly let out a small sigh of relief. The two turned to each other and grinned briefly.

Rick nodded his head at the video monitor. "Not so boring. Eh, Kuon?"

A bit grudgingly, Kuon shrugged but couldn't suppress his smile. "Not bad."

Then the woman spoke over their headsets. "Romeo, Kilo, tail check."

Cursing under his breath, Rick scooted his chair over to another monitor, flipping through a series of camera feeds until he got to one that showed a fish-eye view at street level. Probably from a commandeered ATM camera, Kuon guessed as he tried to lean over to see.

On the new monitor, Kuon watched a woman with long blonde hair wearing a dark-colored blazer stride straight past the camera angle. After a few harrowing seconds, Kuon watched as a man in a pair of ragged jeans and a black t-shirt walked past the camera as well. The doorkeeper from the restaurant!

Kuon's heart leapt into his throat. Panicked and helpless, he glanced back at the feed from the woman's camera. It was bobbing up and down slightly faster as if she had picked up the pace to a brisk walk.

"Tango," Rick spoke urgently into his mic, "you've got a tail. We're going with Trapdoor 6."

"Trapdoor 6," the woman echoed the order, her voice faintly winded as she quickened her pace.

"Kilo, Trapdoor 6?" Rick asked, pressing his hand to his headphones. Frowning, Rick repeated again more insistently, "Kilo, confirm. Trapdoor 6."

Something was apparently going wrong. With a sinking feeling, Kuon watched the woman's feed as she turned a corner around the back of a building off the main road. She made another turn, and suddenly found herself in the middle of a dark, dead-end alley. Cursing, she turned around swiftly.

The black-shirted man stood blocking the only exit.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Japanese Notes:**

 **Oya-baka** – The phrase that describes Kuu when he goes into his "dumb father" mode, just rambling on and on about his son's good points and remaining intentionally blind to his downsides.

 **Pickled plum** – These are pretty good! Very good with onigiri!

 **Onigiri** – Triangle riceballs you often see in bento boxes

 **Saifu** – purse or wallet

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG** – Every chapter upload, I choose the 5 most interesting reviews and reply to them here. :)

 **Shizuhoe** \- Does any election ever make anyone feel good? Haha Politics is one of those things that riles everyone up. Hope you liked the first part of Ren's back story here! :D Thanks as always Shizuhoe!

 **A Musing Brunette** \- Three reviews at once! It's like Christmas! Thanks for going out of your way to leave a review, even though you're not feeling very well. Hope you're feeling better now! As for the most recent manga chapter, I agree that it's nice that Kyoko isn't tormented anymore thinking Kimiko is interested in Ren. Any theories as to WHO she is crushing on? My bet is on Koga! I did hear an interesting theory about how someone thinks she may be after Sho. And yes, I agree that Kimiko is going to take action soon; I think that Erika's request to her 3rd jewel servant was to physically protect Kyoko. Just my own theory :3 Thanks again Musing Brunette! May your musings be free from illness!

 **brennakai** \- Your review made me smile so much! Thank you for your encouragement and just enjoying the story. I was feeling low on writer's motivation, so I re-read your review to power through the end of ch31 (which you guys will see in a few weeks ;)). Still unpacking, but it's getting there. I can finally see my living room floor, so I guess that counts for something! As for whether Kimiko recognized Agent M  & T as Sigma and Chi, she technically has never met Sigma and Chi (Setsu and Cain), so she hasn't been able to out them. As for the political landscape, yeah I was doing a little bit of parody of our online media-driven world. Shouting matches based on biased and limited information have replaced thorough research and intelligent conversation. It's really scary times. :/ Thanks so much for being my angst barometer! Glad it didn't get too dark or too silly! I was really wrestling with the balance there... Haha Thanks again x a million brennakai!

 **HoshiNoTsuya** \- Kyoko kiss Ren? In Skip Beat? Hah! Just kidding. I'm definitely having a kiss scene at the end of my fic! Why else would you all be here?! To see our impatient fantasies played out! Thanks for the praise and encouragement as well. It's always reassuring to know that I'm not butchering the characters and that they are at least somewhat believable. ;) As for Saena, you'd be correct in that I won't have her in the "b****y mom role", especially since Nakamura-sensei herself seems to be moving her out of that box. Really glad you've enjoyed it so far and looking forward to hearing your thoughts as the ending draws nearer and nearer. Thanks HoshiNoTsuya!

 **MWEH** \- I like how the translation came out like the day after I posted and you left your review. It was definitely more delayed this past month than usual! Hopefully Dec is right on time! Thanks for the tip on fixing my Word. I think it fixed itself? *shrugs* Who knows why or how that happened... Lol As for Kyoko knowing what Toudou looks like, good point! I had actually forgotten about that (lol plot holes), but it kind of still makes sense because Kyoko was so fixated on her mother that Toudou just seemed like another faceless politician leaving the room at that point. And lol, sad your review got cut in half! Hope you enjoy reading these flashback chapters as much as I've enjoyed writing them! Thanks for the reassurance that the angst:silly line was toed but not crossed one way or the other! :) Thanks MWEH!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** \- Yay! All caught up! I've also been missing the update emails on some of the fics I'm following so maybe it's an internal technical issue with ? And maybe I'm just drawing out the Delta reveal to mess with y'all! Muahaha! Just kidding - I was actually going to reveal it sooner than I have currently planned, but figured it might work out better if the reader finds out at the same time as our dynamic duo... Or it might be worse. LOL We shall see! Thanks Aikori! I saw that you started a new story! I still need to read your latest one. :3

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Thank you all so, so much for your reviews, faves, and alerts! Keep them coming! Almost to 200 reviews! :D Woohoo!**


	30. Chapter 30

Hello loyal readers,

We've made it past 200 reviews! Woohoo! When I first started this story, I had no idea that it would gain this much attention. I'm so thankful for every single one of you!

Today, Kuon gets into some trouble, and we meet Tina and an OC. I like to minimize the number of OC's that I put in my fics, but this one was necessary to tie certain plot points in Kuon's backstory together. Forgive me? :D

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH30**

While Rick yelled into his mic in the background, Kuon could only stare helplessly at the screen, watching the camera rise and fall with Tango's ragged breathing. She called out to the black-shirted man at the end of the alley, her voice trembling, "Who are you? Why are you following me?"

A salacious grin slid like oil across the scruffy man's face as he took step after step toward the woman. Reaching into his back pocket, he produced a switchblade that he flicked open expertly.

As he continued to advance, the gang's door guard replied in his heavy accent, "You ask for wrong product. Too nosy. Who you work for?"

"Did I ask too many questions? Oh!" Tango straightened, her breathing suddenly even. Her voice abruptly shifted from terrified to pleasantly surprised, the tremble completely gone. "Good to know for next time."

Just then, over Tango's necklace-camera, Kuon saw a dark blur land right behind the assailant from some fire escape or balcony above. In a quick motion, the figure jabbed something into the guard's upper arm. Ducking under the man's clumsy counter-attack, the figure stepped back and let his target crumple to the ground.

Beside Kuon, Rick whooped in victory. Holding out an open hand, the agent turned to Kuon who automatically slapped him high-five. Then Rick was back to business, calling out over his mic to Kilo that he'd better damn-well answer next time.

On the video, Kilo stepped forward. Though the dim light made the video blurry, Kuon could make out that Kilo was – contrary to his name – just an average-sized man in jeans and a hoodie. Kilo knelt next to the body, dragging it to sit up against the concrete wall of the alley.

A male voice, a jovial tenor with a slight accent, came over the line. "My apologies, Romeo. Your crappy American technology cuts in and out. Sometimes, I don't know why I bother."

Rick guffawed and ordered the two agents to just – "Finish up and get your asses back here now."

As they signed out and Tango's video feed went dark, Kuon turned to Rick. "Isn't that guy going to be suspicious when he wakes up? Don't you want to take him in for questioning?"

Rick shrugged one shoulder, lifting his headset off. "The brain is great at filling in gaps to stories it doesn't finish. That drug Kilo dosed him with will help that. And, we'll let him go for now, so that the gang doesn't get suspicious."

Abruptly, Rick threw his arm around Kuon's shoulder. The agent leaned in and grinned. "So? What'd I tell you? Not boring, right?"

"It was grea–!" Kuon realized how excited he sounded, and then pulled away and shrugged nonchalantly, hiding his smile. "It was alright, I guess."

Rick's scoff was interrupted by a solid rapping on the metal of the van's back door. Then the door opened, letting a blinding flash of light into the blacked-out van. Kuon shielded his eyes and blinked black spots as he adjusted to the light.

Beside him, Rick sprang up, almost hitting his head on the ceiling of the car. "Tina! Welcome home, babe!"

Eyes finally adjusted, Kuon watched as a beautiful blonde woman in a black blazer, jeans, and heeled ankle boots climbed into the van and slammed the door shut behind her. She hoisted her bag of contraband onto a table and rolled her eyes at Rick.

"Please don't refer to this hunk of junk as our 'home,'" she groaned, but still leaned back to peck Rick on the lips before pulling on a pair of latex gloves and turning back to the fake luxury items.

Rick simply smirked and turned to Kuon. "Time for formal introductions, now that you're actually conscious! Tina –" Rick motioned with one hand "– meet Kuon Hizuri. Kuon, Tina Albright."

Tina froze. Then turning slowly, she glanced at Kuon over her shoulder.

Suddenly feeling nervous, Kuon held his hand out to shake. "Nice to meet you…"

Looking at the teen up and down and then turning back to place the contraband in evidence baggies, Tina called out over her shoulder. "Uh huh. Yeah. You too."

As Kuon let his hand drop awkwardly, Rick shot the teen an apologetic smile. Before the CIA agent could say anything further, the van door opened again.

Climbing into the van was a dark-haired Asian man in jeans and a hoodie. Past his glasses, his eyes widened in pleasant surprise. He shot Kuon a warm smile before closing the door.

"Ah, yes! And here comes our resident ninja, himself!" Rick exclaimed and squeezed past Tina to clap the newcomer on the shoulder.

The man – Kilo, Kuon assumed – chuckled quietly, shaking his head. "You Americans and your fascination with ninja."

Jokingly miffed, Rick crossed his arms and muttered, "I'm half-Japanese too, you know?"

Ignoring Rick, Kilo approached Kuon, crouching so he wouldn't hit his head on the van. The man ducked a polite bow as best he could in the tight space. "It is very nice to meet you, Kuon-kun. My name is Shizumino Kaiso, Japanese Public Security Intelligence Agency."

Remembering his brief course in Japanese manners from his dad, Kuon performed a clumsy bow at the waist. "It's nice to meet you too, Shizumino-san."

"Kaiso here is on loan from Japan," Rick said as he came up behind them. "The Japanese always clean up their messes, eh, Kaiso?"

"It is true!" Kilo laughed again, a gentle sound. Pushing up his glasses on his nose, he turned to Kuon. "Tokyo is one of the cleanest cities you'll ever see. You should come visit some day, Kuon-kun."

On instinct, Kuon wrinkled his nose. "Not if I have to learn any of that dumb kanji."

"Oh well, Kuu. You tried," Rick sighed dramatically to the air. "But your son is still more American than Japanese."

As the three laughed and Kaiso continued extolling the beauties and wonders of his home country, Kuon noticed that Tina had come over and tapped Rick on the shoulder. She whispered something in his ear. Rick nodded and the two exited the van, standing just outside.

Growing more and more curious, Kuon edged toward the door. The Japanese national merely gave the teen a bemused look and turned around to unhook himself from his gear.

As Kuon neared the door, he heard Tina hiss, "You can't be serious, letting this brat tag along."

Rick responded, "C'mon Tina. We both owe it to Kuu–"

Kuon felt a heavy, familiar weight build in his gut. Even here…

"Kuu is one thing. But his son? Have you seen his record? He's just a time bomb waiting to go off in our faces."

Then Rick spoke. "No, Tina."

"What?"

"This kid – no, Kuon – he's got good potential. Just because he's gotten himself in some trouble doesn't mean he's a hopeless case. I mean, if I had to constantly live in the Hizuri shadow, I'd probably crack a little too. We all would."

At Rick's words, Kuon felt the knot in his stomach loosen.

"Rick…"

"Tina, it's just for a couple of months. Let the guy spread his wings a little."

A pause, then Tina sighed, resigned. "Fine. I… I just worry about you sometimes, Rick."

Kuon peeked out the door long enough to catch sight of Rick gathering Tina into his arms and planting a passionate kiss on her lips. The agent grinned into the kiss. "When do I ever give you anything to worry about?"

Tina grinned back, swatting Rick in the shoulder. "All the damn time, you fool."

As quietly as he could, Kuon scooted away from the door, back into the darkness of the van. It felt wrong witnessing such a private moment. Besides, he felt better – lighter – hearing Rick defend him like that. Maybe Rick would be an alright mentor after all…

Behind Kuon, Kaiso chuckled as he coiled up a wire around his mic's transmitter. "Ah, young love…"

Pouting now, Kuon made a gagging noise. "Gross…"

"Well," Kaiso sighed and looked skyward. "You are only 15, I suppose…"

 **-x-**

The next month crawled by. Stakeouts, tracking gang member movements, and slowly but surely gathering evidence to shut down the gang took patience and time. Both of which, Kuon felt, were luxuries he didn't have.

'This is so boring,' Kuon mentally griped as he spun around in the van's swivel chair. They were on day four of a stakeout following a particularly mundane middle-class Japanese-American secretary. Kimura Jin was a person of interest, Rick had earlier explained, because as a secretary, he had access to the customs official's log at the port of Long Beach. Ideal for covering up a contraband smuggling operation.

However, Kimura was very methodical – home, then work, then the bar afterward to relax with coworkers, then back home. Rinse and repeat. Kuon was pretty sure that the guy even ate the same thing for lunch every day. The teen hated it.

A small object suddenly smacked Kuon on the face. Startled, the blonde jumped in his chair, which almost skittered away on its unsteady wheels.

"Just trying to keep you on your toes," Rick sniggered from across the van. Kuon picked the thrown cracker piece off his shirt and shot the agent a glare.

"Rick, I'm seriously dying here!"

"Aw, c'mon Kuon. It was just a cracker."

Wilting at his mentor's bad joke, Kuon groaned, "You know what I mean…"

Rick considered him for a moment then grinned. "Well… If you behave yourself, maybe I can convince Kaiso or Tina to bring you with them next time they go out to gather intel."

"Really?" Instantly brightening, Kuon scooted his chair over to Rick. "You mean it?"

"Yeah! Of course. I'd say you're ready," the CIA agent said as he began to rise from his chair. Cricking his neck to the left and then to the right, Rick tossed Kuon the van's keys. He headed to the back of the van. "I'm going to go take a piss. Keep an eye on the monitors for me."

"Sure thing," Kuon called back before scooting back up to the screen, enthusiasm renewed. As he flipped through the camera feed from outside the K-Town bar (it was relax-over-drinks time for Kimura), Kuon's mind raced with the possibilities.

Tina was currently out, submitting reports to the local CIA office. Kaiso was reporting to some higher-ups at the Japanese embassy. But both were due to return later at night. Would Rick let him go out in the field tonight? It was possible!

Alone in the van, Kuon allowed himself to do a small, private victory dance in his seat. However, as he turned back to the screen, the teen paused.

A lone figure, grainy in the low light, stepped out of the back exit of the bar, looked both ways, then began to walk briskly down the street behind the strip mall. Kuon leaned forward, squinting at the screen. Was it Kimura? It was so hard to tell… And there was only one camera angle that captured the back of the bar.

Then the figure was gone. Kuon leapt from his chair, then stopped, hand halfway opening the car door. If it was Kimura, then this was an unprecedented break in his pattern – something extremely suspicious. This could be their big break for the investigation.

But on the other hand, if it wasn't Kimura, Rick would be so pissed that Kuon had left the van…

However, Kuon argued with himself, Rick had even said that he was ready for fieldwork. And while he was sitting here deliberating, the man – possibly Kimura – was getting farther and farther away.

"Dammit!" Kuon growled and launched himself out of the van. Locking the door, the Hizuri popped the hood of his sweater up as he trotted across the street to the bar. As he walked, the blonde boy decided on a compromise. He would take a quick peek through a window, and if Kimura really had left, Kuon would call Rick.

The restaurant was situated at the corner edge of an aging strip mall, surrounded by green mesh-covered chain-link construction fences. In addition to a grimy glass door, the restaurant had several square windows along the bar. The windows themselves were plastered with sun-faded posters advertising various Korean dishes and soju brands, providing the bar's patrons inside a modicum of privacy.

Now hugging the edge of a fence, Kuon snuck a glance behind him then quickly crossed the dark side street to duck under a window. He crept forward, still crouching, until he found an ad that was peeling up at the corners, leaving a small triangular clearing.

Making sure the flash was off, Kuon slowly, slowly raised the camera side of his flip-phone and snapped a series of shots, praying that the brightness levels would be adequate. Bringing the phone back down, Kuon quickly flipped through the pictures.

The grainy low-light photo showed a scattering of Asian businessmen sat at the bar, but no Kimura.

Cursing under his breath, Kuon pressed the 3 on speed dial. The line rang… then rang… then went to voicemail.

"Dammit Rick…" Kuon hung up and pressed the button again. Still no answer.

Uttering another curse, the Hizuri teen began running, still doubled-over under the line of windows. Finally reaching the back of the restaurant, he straightened into a full yet silent sprint, his head whipping to the left and right to try and catch sight of his quarry.

Fortunately, there was only one way down the side street at the back of the restaurant. Kuon leapt down the gravel path, hemmed in on both sides by the construction fencing. He tried to quiet his noisy breaths and scuffling sneakers. As he ran, he continued to try to reach Rick. Two more calls went to voicemail.

Giving up, Kuon flipped his phone closed and pocketed it. He needed to focus. Approaching a right angle turn in the path, Kuon slowed, crouched, and peeked around.

At the end of the path, about fifty feet away, was a large gate in the chain-link fence, the type that would have been big enough to accommodate bulldozers and other vehicles. Shadowed by the gate, a lone figure unlocked the padlock and unwound a chain that held the gate closed. The man gave two tugs on the gate, which swung open with a resistant screech. With a quick look behind him, the figure slipped past the gate and into the construction zone.

Waiting until he was sure the man had gone, Kuon crept forward and slipped through the open gate.

 **-x-**

Whistling and hands in pockets, Rick strode back down the street. The gas station with the restroom was a fair distance away from the van and the restaurant, but that was just as well. Very few people could follow him to and from each location with his circuitous route over fences and through Korea Town's grimy back alleys.

Things were going well with Kuon too. The angry, brooding teen that Rick had met at the Hizuri residence had morphed over the span of a month. Kuon was sharp, asked good questions, and was eager. Sometimes a bit too eager, but still, couldn't fault the guy for his enthusiasm.

Rick smiled to himself and found his hand drifting to the brown leather strap of his watch. A very long time ago, Kuu had rescued an aimless, troubled teen. Kuu had given him a purpose in life. Now, Rick was finally repaying that debt.

Approaching the van parked at the edge of a vacant lot, the agent brought his hand up and rapped against the rear door.

Kuon didn't answer. Frowning, Rick tried the door handle. Locked.

Rounding to the front of the van, Rick tried peering in the driver's side window. The light wasn't on in the back; the monitor's dim glow wasn't even visible.

Feeling a nervous weight begin to settle in his stomach, Rick tried knocking again and when that failed to elicit a response, he slipped his lock-picking tool out of his boot.

"I swear, if that kid is just napping or something, I'm going to give him the biggest noogie…"

Picking the lock took the longest minute of his life. Finally, Rick swept the rear door of the van open.

"Kuon-!" The cry died on his lips. The van was empty.

Rick's eyes darted about, his mouth suddenly bone dry. The only thing that responded was the blinking glow of his cell phone screen as it lay, forgotten on the side table.

Hurriedly, Rick snatched up his phone. The screen read, "Kuon Hizuri - 4 missed calls".

Rick sighed in relief. At least Kuon was still alive and well enough to call him. Pressing the button for redial, the dark-haired agent held the phone to his ear, ready with a thorough lecture for the teen.

However, the phone rang twice before abruptly dropping the call. Rick stared at the phone, puzzled. Kuon had hung up on him?

Before Rick could hit redial again, a loud, echoing _BOOM_ - _THUMP-THUMP-THUMP_ reverberated through the ground.

Dashing out of the van, Rick whipped around in all directions. A plume of wispy dust spiraled up from a construction site behind their staked-out restaurant. Rick cursed and began running.

"This kid!" The CIA operative growled, "He's totally going to be the death of me."

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG** – I choose the 5+ most interesting reviews and reply to them here.

 **Shizuhoe** \- Haha I was wondering if someone would catch that! In my head canon, Kuu is using both hands. He just wants to be as efficient as possible in his food consumption. Because - let's face it - if he were to eat that amount of food like a normal human being, he'd be at the dining table all day! Glad I could get a chuckle with the riceball comment. And yeah, ever since I was planning out this fic, the plan was always for Kuon's backstory to have multiple chapters because at least in this AU, Rick is Ren's primary motivator for revenge. Hope you continue to enjoy the ride!

 **brennakai** \- Haha, my floor WAS visible after finishing moving everything in but now has become cluttered with misc LIFE things (gifts for family I need to wrap, items we need to donate, clothing I forgot to put away...). As you can tell, I'm not very OCD, which is probably why it was so easy to unpack and so fast to become undone and messy again. Really glad you enjoyed the Hizuri breakfast scene! Kuu and Juliena are a delight to write, but unfortunately that's the first and last time they will be appearing in this fic. :( I was thinking of having a Kuu visits Japan arc, but that would've just made the story a bit more bloated and dragging than needed. Also really glad that you like AU Rick! In the manga, he seems so serious, so uptight, so... Japanese haha. I figured if he's an American in America, he's going to realistically be more loose and fun-loving, maybe to the point of a teensy bit of irresponsibility. Thanks my angst-o-meter! Praying that no matter how tragic his back story, my Kuon will never turn into a Sasuke-level of angst -_- Thanks again brennakai!

 **Guest** \- Thank you very much! I'm very grateful you took the time to leave a review! It's very encouraging to know that people are enjoying what I write. As for Delta's past, yes! There will be a bit of backstory, but nothing as extensive as Kuon's here. And please don't shoot me, but... I've never finished reading the HP series! Furthest I got was Sorcerer's Stone! Leave a name if you review again so I can do a specific shout out to you!

 **MWEH** \- Were you also disappointed with this month's chapter? I was a little... I know it's necessary to show Kyoko's thought process and her reaction to Kimiko dropping out of the audition, but... again! Nothing happened! *sigh* Sometimes I can and can't believe that this manga has been going on for longer than a decade. Haha As for Kuon and Kyoko as kids, I don't think I've directly addressed it, but in one of the earlier chapters, Kyoko as a child mentions that she's met someone who can do magic. It's a very brief line haha, but yup! The corn stone and them meeting as kids is a thing in this AU. Good luck on your Delta quest ;)

 **HoshiNoTsuya** \- Of course it wouldn't be easy, as a secret agent! ;D And of course I wouldn't let you guys off the hook without yet ANOTHER cliffhanger! muahahaha... Glad you enjoyed the Hizuri breakfast scene and find it realistic that Kuu and Juliena are probably some of the most cavalier parents out there in the SB universe. xD And you were right! Action-packed chapter in two weeks! It was actually so action-packed that I couldn't pick a good stopping point and had to make this chapter a little shorter just so that one can be a stand-alone chapter. And indeed! You were the 200th reviewer! Thanks so much! *huggles*

 **Aikori Ichijouji** \- Thanks! I'm really glad you like my Rick! It's been really fun to write him. I was thinking and I can't really pin-point who I've based him on. A little bit of Jiraiya (Naruto) and a dash of Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug), perhaps? And yeah, by all means! Use my method of reveal as a case study. I honestly think I'm dragging out the Delta reveal a bit toooo much, but hopefully throwing you guys other mysteries to keep you busy (AKA what happened to Rick?!) haha. Hopefully it can help you build an even better, more intense climax to your story! :D Yeah, I want to definitely take my time reading your stuff! Maybe I'll get to it over Christmas! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 **Crazy4Animation** \- What kind of tea? My fave is genmaicha - nutty and earthy, with a bit of caffeine. I'm so flattered that you've been watching out for my new update! But just so you won't be on tenderhooks, I update every other Fri night/Sat :) LOL and thanks for your encouragement! Thanks Elina!

* * *

 **Thank you all so much for your reviews! Don't forget to leave me a Christmas present with a Fave, an Alert, or a Review! Love you all!**


	31. Chapter 31

Hello loyal readers,

So sorry about missing the upload date last weekend! Fanfiction literally would not let me upload a chapter, and I've been working every spare moment that I haven't spent driving home and collapsing into bed. But good news is that I'll be uploading the next chapter NEXT WEEKEND! Look forward to it!

So today, we've officially passed the number of chapters I initially had planned for this fic. When I first started planning out the plot, I was planning to make it around 30 chapters long. But… LOL that's hilarious.

Today we have a couple of character deaths… I'm sorry, guys. Couldn't escape it.

Please enjoy and don't forget to leave a fave, an alert, or a review! It's really good motivation!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH31**

– _**Previously –**_

 _Rick sighed in relief. At least Kuon was still alive and well enough to call him. Pressing the button for redial, the dark-haired agent held the phone to his ear, ready with a thorough lecture for the teen._

 _However, the phone rang twice before abruptly dropping the call. Rick stared at the phone, puzzled. Kuon had hung up on him?_

 _Before Rick could hit redial again, a loud, echoing BOOM-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP reverberated through the ground._

 _Dashing out of the van, Rick whipped around in all directions. A plume of wispy dust spiraled up from a construction site behind their staked-out restaurant. Rick cursed and began running._

 _"This kid!" The CIA operative growled, "He's totally going to be the death of me."_

– **5 Minutes Earlier –**

On the other side of the fence, Kuon ducked for cover behind a towering stack of wooden planks. Peeking around the edge, he quickly spied his quarry walking across the dusty construction lot toward a half-finished concrete skeleton of a multi-storied parking structure.

Picking his way in the dark along routes of cover, Kuon saw the man push aside the plastic sheeting that covered the entrance to the building and step inside. A murmur of other voices rose as the plastic settled.

As quietly as he could, Kuon crept closer to the doorway, making sure that he hugged the side of the building, crouching low to avoid detection. There was an unfinished window a few feet to the side and above the door. A pile of enormous cement pipes at least 20 feet long and 4 feet in diameter lay under the window.

He grinned. Perfect.

Scrambling up the side of the pipes, Kuon only had one scare where his foot slipped and the huge pipe rotated slightly. The entire pile trembled, its balance threatened. Metal groaned as the displaced weight put stress on an alarmingly flimsy-looking bar blocking the bottom row of heavy pipes. A metal handle with some kind of hinge and a heavy-based stand attached to the bar.

The extra weight of the teenaged boy eventually evened out, and the pipes settled, only giving a lengthy ominous grind against the metal bar. Taking a moment, Kuon examined the contraption. He guessed that the construction workers could keep the pile in place just by pushing the handle and lowering the metal bar. If that piece of equipment had failed, he would've been a goner for sure.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Kuon finished hoisting himself up the stack, standing on his tiptoes. The window ledge was littered with loose bricks that had yet to be laid, so he quietly pushed a couple to the side to peek over the ledge and into the building.

Below him, in the hazy glow of a single, battery-powered lantern, stood three men. One dressed in a black jacket, another in a navy parka, and the last in a gray sport coat that had seen better days. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Kuon could tell that unfortunately, none of them were Kimura.

However, before he could beat a hasty retreat, he noticed that one of the men – the man in black who seemed strangely familiar – began to speak.

"Hoh? Park-nim! Oraenmanieyo."

Taken aback, Kuon stayed, listening as the newcomer similarly replied in a foreign language. As all three figures stepped up into the light and bowed to each other, Kuon noted that they were Asian men, speaking a clearly Asian language – but not Japanese. Though Kuon could not consider himself by any means fluent, Kuu had ensured that his son at least understood basic Japanese conversation.

So this… wasn't related to the Japanese gang Rick was following?

The man in the gray sport coat produced a battered looking notebook as the other two gathered around. As the men continued to speak in hushed tones, Kuon brought his phone up to take a quick picture, making sure to capture all three faces past the bricks on the windowsill.

He was going to get out of there. These men were clearly up to no good – but it was also not his place to try and get to the bottom of it, especially right now without backup. Kuon glanced down at the pile, mentally trying to pick a good foothold.

That was when his phone started ringing.

The upbeat ringtone shrilly cut through the silent night. Caught halfway to putting the phone in his pocket, Kuon yelped and fumbled with the device. He almost dropped it before he caught it again, madly pressing buttons to try and turn the sound off.

In a panic, the blonde finally managed to mash his thumb down on the button to hang up the call. He breathed a sigh of relief at the sudden silence. Then he froze.

The men were shouting inside. And their voices were getting louder.

Just as Kuon was calculating his jump to leap off the pile of concrete pipes, the first man burst past the plastic. The man in the black jacket looked left then right and up straight at Kuon. Shouting something in his foreign tongue, the man gestured behind him toward the blonde teen.

Kuon saw, even through the dim light, the telltale glint of the second man's pistol.

However, before he could run, the second and third man cleared the doorway, and the gun was instantly trained on the trespasser.

Black Jacket spoke, his words heavily accented. "You! Boy! What you do here?"

"N-Nothing…" Kuon hazarded. His eyes flicked to the left and the right, searching for a solution. Like his dad had said, there was always a way out! His gaze lighted on the pile of bricks above him and on the metal contraption a yard from the feet of the gangsters.

Clearly, the three men didn't believe his denial. Gray Coat barked a dry laugh and gestured with the gun. "Lies! You come down here now!"

"Why…?" Kuon slowly backed toward the window. "I'm just checking out the new building…"

Navy Parka guffawed. He muttered something (probably insulting, Kuon noted) to the man with the gun who laughed derisively in turn.

Navy Parka turned back to the teen. "You come down here now, or he shoot you."

"I don't think so," Kuon growled back and reached behind himself to snatch a brick off the ledge of the window.

The men paused for a moment, and Kuon held the brick aloft, threateningly. Then they burst out laughing. Gray Coat just shook his gun in Kuon's direction. "Before you hit us, I shoot you. Dead!"

"We'll see about that," Kuon muttered to himself then tossed the brick up in the air. The brick tumbled up, end over end, about ten feet into the air before plummeting down, its trajectory obviously quite far from the trio of men.

Navy Parka just scoffed. "Idiot boy."

Then the brick came down, directly striking the handle of the metal contraption at the base of the pile of gigantic concrete pipes.

With a solid _clunk,_ the handle engaged a spring-loaded mechanism, which sprung on the hinge to raise the metal bar with only a slight rusty groan. After a heavy pause, gravity began to take effect as the pipes at the top of the pile began exerting rotational force on the bottom row.

The cement pipes rolled slowly at first, but then as the upper rows lost stability and gained momentum, they began bouncing like 25-ton barrels down the stack directly toward the trio.

While his attackers screamed and fled for their lives, Kuon wobbled on his rapidly collapsing foothold. Steadying himself for just a moment, he pushed off his pipe, leaping up into the air and performing a backward summersault. He rolled as he landed to dispel the energy.

Quickly checking that he was out of harm's way, he watched the dust settle around the construction site, the pipes having wrought devastation in their wake. Coughing at the dust, he spotted one pair of legs on the ground, the torso and head swallowed up under the girth of a concrete pipe. Dark crimson liquid dripped thickly from the bottom of the pipe. A hand attached to a navy sleeve peeked out from underneath.

Kuon felt a rapid wave of nausea.

Then he heard shouting.

Struggling out of the dust cloud, Black Jacket and Gray Coat stumbled forward. The man in the gray coat was clutching his arm weakly as he limped, the gun dangling precariously from his slack fingers; however Black Jacket just snapped at him and snatched the gun from his hand. He waved it around, and Gray Coat nodded feebly, reached into his coat and handed his partner the worn notebook. Then Gray Coat began limping … toward the exit!

Kuon clambered to his feet and dashed behind a bulldozer. They were trying to trap him. Block all the exits. Cut off his escape.

Beginning to hyperventilate now, Kuon scarcely heard Black Jacket shout, "Where are you, boy? Come out! NOW!"

Kuon heard the man knock over a pile of something and shout angrily. Clutching his hands to his chest, the Hizuri teen peeked slowly, slowly around the edge of the vehicle.

The black-jacketed man was glaring right at him. With a furious shout, the attacker ran forward, gun rising.

Losing his balance in his panic, Kuon stumbled back, then clambered to his feet. He ran for his life.

Gunshots whizzed through the air. The left. Then at his feet. Something stung his right arm. OW! Can't stop running.

On instinct, Kuon dove behind a stack of crates, just as a bullet zipped past his head. Scrambling to his feet, the blonde weaved between the tall stacks of crates and construction equipment, ducking behind large mounds of earth. He had to lose this guy. Otherwise he was dead meat.

But suddenly, he was falling.

"Ooof!" Kuon grunted as his body hit the merciless dirt and tumbled over and over, limbs flailing uselessly, until he finally slowed to a stop. He lay stunned for a moment, frozen. Then he shakily picked himself up. As he stood, Kuon realized that he had just run into a giant trench, no doubt dug for deep pipes or wires. The trench walls came up to Kuon's neck. No cover. Nowhere to hide. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

As fast as he could, Kuon tried to hoist himself out of the hole, but his right arm crumpled in a blinding flash of pain, sending him toppling back into the trench.

He was just about to go for his second attempt when he heard the scuffling steps.

Kuon froze. His heart leapt to the base of his throat before it began to beat a ragged, irregular rhythm. Slowly, he knelt deeper into the hole, his back clinging to the wall.

The footsteps drew closer… stopped… then even closer.

Trying to muffle his shaky breaths, Kuon placed a trembling hand over his mouth.

He had been an idiot. A stupid, arrogant, blind idiot. But was he so bad? He had just wanted to pursue his dream. He had just wanted to make his dad proud. He had just wanted to be like his parents…

Maybe he would never be like his parents. Maybe he would never realize his dream. Maybe he was going to literally die in a ditch, right here and now.

The footsteps stopped. Black Jacket spoke. "I know, boy. Your fear. Fear of death."

The man paused.

"Do not fear… I will end it quickly for you." His voice was directly above.

Kuon gasped, twisting to look behind him. He lost his balance, falling to the floor.

The Asian man stood over him, at the lip of the trench, the gun outstretched in his hand.

Kuon took a shaky step backward. The man's finger tightened over the trigger.

"This what you get for sticking nose in business, brat."

Flinging his hands up and squeezing his eyes closed, Kuon waited for the gunshot.

 _BANG!_

One moment… Two… Kuon slowly eked his eyes open. Maybe he was running on so much adrenaline that there wasn't any pain. Maybe he was already dead?

Then his attacker shouted, clearly angry.

Kuon's eyes flew open.

Black Jacket cursed in his foreign tongue, and Kuon watched, confused, as the man began clutching his shoulder. His shoulder was bleeding. Spinning on his heel, the man leapt away from the edge of the trench and dashed away into several nearby rows of cement roadblocks for cover.

Stunned, Kuon could only listen as more gunfire scattered through the air. Eventually, there was a pause.

From behind, fast steps scuffled through the dirt, and then someone poked his head over the edge of the trench.

"Rick!" Kuon exclaimed, instantly relieved.

On his belly, Rick kept low and extended an arm down to Kuon. "C'mon! Hurry up!"

Snapping back to himself, Kuon grabbed his mentor's arm and used it to climb out of the pit. The two continued to crouch and found cover behind an excavator machine.

Kuon tried to steady his breathing as he panted out, "Rick, I can't tell you how glad I am to see you!"

The CIA agent's only response was to smack the teen soundly over the back of his head. While Kuon was still reeling from the blow, he found himself wrapped in a fierce embrace.

Ruffling Kuon's hair, Rick frowned and pushed the teen away. He pointed an accusatory finger in the blonde's face. "Don't think this is over. We're still going to have a _LONG_ talk about this later, kid."

Shocked from the near simultaneous abuse and affection, Kuon could only mutter absently, "I thought you said you weren't going to call me kid anymore."

"The exception is when you act like one."

"Ah… That's… fair."

A bullet winged against their metal barricade and brought the two back to reality. Rick fired back in their attacker's general direction once, just to keep their opponent on his toes. Then the dark-haired agent turned to Kuon, looked at him thoughtfully and then back at the gun in his hands. Slowly, deliberately, Rick turned the gun in his hands, so that he was offering the stock to Kuon.

"We're pinned down here. The exit is behind him," Rick said solemnly. "You keep him busy laying down cover fire for me. I'll sneak around and flank him."

"Rick…" Kuon's pulse began to skyrocket again as he looked between the gun and the CIA agent. "This isn't–!"

Rick merely shook his head and shoved the pistol into the teen's hands. Kuon's mouth felt instantly dry. He had gone to shooting ranges with his parents, but… the gun was a lot heavier than he remembered.

Catching Kuon's eye one last time, Rick winked and ruffled the blonde's hair. Then he was gone.

"This isn't going to work," the teen whispered, finishing his thought and staring horrified at the gun in his hands.

Suddenly gunshots peppered the night, jolting Kuon back to his emergent task at hand. Keep the gunman busy. Rick was counting on him.

Kuon peeked slowly through the cab of the excavator. The black-jacketed man had popped his head up behind a series of concrete road barricades on the other side of the trench. Quickly taking stock of the situation, Kuon realized that Rick was pinned down behind a stack of crates. He was going to have to cover a lot of ground to get behind the guy.

Swallowing hard, Kuon took a better position behind the construction vehicle, checked that the gun's safety was off, and began firing.

His first several shots went wide, giving Black Jacket enough warning to duck behind the barricade again. Kuon cursed under his breath. The recoil on Rick's pistol and the shaking in his own hands were throwing his aim off completely.

Black Jacket popped his head up again, and Kuon loosed another two shots. He could see the dust as the bullets ricocheted off the concrete next to the man's arm. The assailant ducked again.

Sucking in a deep breath then wooshing it out, the Hizuri scowled at his hands, willing them to stop shaking. He took another shot at the gunman's hiding spot, just to make sure the man wouldn't try to pop up and look for Rick again.

Kuon caught a quick glimpse of Rick's brown leather jacket as the CIA agent moved quickly, crouching between two concrete barricades. Somehow, he had made it to the other side of the trench.

A flash of black caught Kuon's eye, but in a different spot, and the Hizuri instinctively locked on and fired twice. The gunman ducked down again, apparently having moved to try to catch the two Americans off-guard.

However, Black Jacket had made a soon-to-be-fatal error. He had lost track of Rick, and had actually moved closer to the CIA agent.

With the silent deadliness of a viper, Rick darted forward and tackled the attacker to the ground. Moments passed as grunts and sounds of a struggle echoed quietly in the night. Debating whether or not to move closer, Kuon strained to see what was going.

Finally a lone figure rose from the dust. Kuon squinted in the low light. Then his heart plummeted to the bottom of his stomach.

Black Jacket stood above Rick, and the man was holding the gun.

Kuon raised his own weapon and fired. Or at least tried to. His pistol had jammed.

As if in slow motion, Kuon looked up, horrified and helpless.

"RICK—!" A single, desperate scream. It was all Kuon's fault…

A lone gunshot echoed through the still night.

Kuon blinked his eyes open. He realized he had turned away in fear at the last moment. The dreadful pit at the bottom of his stomach grew as he glanced back at the scene before him.

Then he watched, confused, as Black Jacket stumbled forward. The man's hand crawled up to clutch his chest. Even in the dim lighting, Kuon saw that the attacker's hand came away glistening red. Then, like a puppet whose strings have been suddenly and unexpectedly cut, he fell. His gun clattered uselessly to the ground.

Behind the man, stood Tina. Her smoking pistol followed him as he lay, still in death on the ground, until she was satisfied. Then she quickly holstered her weapon and ran to Rick.

Snapping out of his paralysis of disbelief, Kuon similarly flicked the safety back on his mentor's gun and ran toward Rick, stumbling forward in his eagerness. This time, not paralyzed by fear, it only took his wounded right arm two tries to lift him up out of the trench.

As he approached, Kuon could see Tina crouched on the floor by Rick, having just finished checking him for injuries. The dark-haired agent was propped up against one of the concrete barriers, clearly wounded but apparently not enough to warrant too much concern, because Tina suddenly smacked him solidly in the shoulder.

"You're an idiot!" The blonde woman snapped, "You know that?"

Kuon slowed his approach and could only watch as Rick chuckled in response.

Tina ranted on, punctuating each statement with a smack to Rick's shoulder, "A grade-A –certified – capital-I – IDIOT!" Rick let her rant for a few more sentences, and then without a word, he tugged her into a fierce embrace. Tina instantly crumpled, fisting the lapels of Rick's jacket. Her voice cracked with emotion, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You can't die yet, you big idiot. I-I don't know what I'd do without you."

After a moment or two of letting Tina cry into Rick's shoulder, Kuon approached. Rick had a nasty, swelling bruise that had begun to form over one of his eyes, but he still smiled when the blonde teen approached.

"Rick…" Stopping a few feet away, Kuon dropped Rick's gaze and stared at his shoes. "I'm so sorry… I can't – You almost – because of me–"

"Hey, Kuon. Can I see my gun?"

Heart sinking, Kuon couldn't meet his mentor's gaze as he handed the pistol back, stock-first. Rick turned the gun over in his hands and then tried pulling the clip out.

The man uttered a short, ironic snort. "Jammed, huh? Those assholes at HQ told me it was fixed."

Kuon's gaze flicked up, trying to suppress the hope that was attempting to buoy his heart. But Rick was smiling. The CIA agent patted Tina's shoulders, and she jolted as if realizing for the first time that Kuon was there as well. Trying to suppress her snuffling and to hide her tears, she stood and helped Rick to his feet.

Abruptly, Tina turned toward Kuon, a fierce spark in her eye. Kuon felt his heart drop again. Then the blonde agent uttered a long and loud sigh and shifted to walk past him. But not before turning suddenly to sock the teen solidly in the shoulder as well. Kuon tried to suppress a whimper as his hand instantly flew to the shockingly strong surge of pain in his upper arm.

"Now we're even… Little Idiot," Tina muttered as she pulled out her cellphone, no doubt to do damage control.

Sirens were already wailing through the night, Kuon realized. Rick hobbled over and threw his arm over Kuon's shoulder. The teen staggered a bit under the unexpected weight before righting himself again.

"Rick…" Kuon tried to begin, his eyes sliding off to the side. The two began limping toward the exit with Tina following behind on her phone. They paused as Kuon's gaze found the body of the black-jacketed man laying face-up in the dust. A corner of a battered notebook peeked out from his jacket.

Tina cupped her phone between her shoulder and her ear as pulled a handkerchief from her pocket. The two men watched as she grimaced and bent down to snag the notebook, careful not to compromise fingerprint evidence.

Then the Hizuri's eyes widened in realization. He knew this man seemed familiar. It was the same door guard who had assaulted Tina in the alley of Little Tokyo all those weeks ago.

"H-Hey! This guy–!"

"Kuon," Rick interrupted him, "why do CIA operatives exist?"

Caught off-guard by the sudden change in topic, Kuon uncomfortably shifted his weight from one foot to the other and stared at the ground. "The CIA exists to mitigate foreign threats to the American people and government."

"Good little textbook," Rick joked lightly. Kuon would have shot him a glare and might've purposefully jostled the injured man… if he still didn't feel so damned guilty. Then Rick's tone became serious again, "But really, why?"

Stumped, Kuon mumbled, "I guess I don't know why…"

The dark-haired agent leaned over to chuck the teen under the chin with one finger. Kuon finally looked up to meet his mentor's eyes. Rick gazed solemnly back at him.

"We exist," Rick said simply, eyes boring into Kuon's, "to protect. We are the guardians of the fragile fabric of our society. We do not take that duty lightly."

Indicating he wanted to move on, Rick took a step toward the exit, and Kuon followed, eyes unintentionally pausing to look at the body. The image seared itself into his memory. The man looked a lot smaller now, forever still and never to move again.

As the two walked in heavy silence, nearing the gate, Kuon spied another body on the ground. This one had also been shot but it wore a gray sport coat instead. It reminded him of the body buried in the back of the complex under an enormous cement pipe, blood pooling in the dirt. A single hand peeked out from underneath the pipe.

Kuon felt a swell of nausea. But more than that, he just felt… exhausted.

"It was just self-defense… right?" He asked suddenly, his voice quavering.

"It was." Rick nodded but added gravely, "But that doesn't mean you are allowed to go around murdering people willy-nilly. These guys still had friends… family."

Kuon winced. Now he really felt sick.

"In this job, it's not 'if' you'll take a life. It's a matter of 'when.'" Rick's solemn tone made the teen turn to meet his eyes again. "But you must never grow calloused. Every time you mourn over an enemy, you're reminding yourself of your own humanity. If you ever lose that sense of regret… well, you might as well not be human anymore."

The Hizuri swallowed hard. "Even if we're the right ones?"

"Kuon…" Rick chuckled – a dark, tired sound. "Everyone thinks they're the right ones."

"Well said, old friend." A smooth voice penetrated their pensive silence.

Kuon perked up. Kaiso stood in jeans and a black peacoat, leaning against the gate. Striding forward, the PSIA agent tucked an arm under Rick's free one to help him hobble along.

"Thanks Kaiso," Rick grunted and winced as the Japanese man unintentionally jostled some unseen wound.

"No problem, but… You two really have to stop working me overtime," Kaiso remarked light-heartedly, his voice slightly strained under the extra weight.

"Hmph! Who's the one who showed up at the very end?" Tina called out. The trio of men turned to look as she hung up her phone and shot them all a smug grin. "And guess who just cleaned up the mess your sorry asses made? LAPD and higher-ups are all up to speed."

The three men just blinked blankly at the blonde woman. Kuon was utterly shocked. After making such a scene, he had expected to spend at least one night in a police station filing reports.

"Kuon, one more piece of advice."

The teen glanced up at Rick, questioning.

"Behind every successful man…" Rick's serious look suddenly split into a wide grin. "Is a strong woman. So you need to get a girlfriend as soon as possible!"

With a groan and a roll of her eyes heavenward, Tina swatted the back of Rick's head.

Rick winced then shot Kuon a wink, his voice mock-strained with the pain. "Hey, the stronger the woman, the more successful the man!"

For the first time in a long time, Kuon laughed so long and hard that he could hardly breathe. The agents and their apprentice loaded Rick into the surveillance van and drove away into the night, just as the first police officers arrived on scene.

 **-x-**

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 **NOTES**

Does anyone know what language the gangsters are speaking? Hehe

Also, if you're REALLY observant, you'll notice that this chapter uses Imperial measurements (ie: feet, ton) instead of metric (ie: meter, kilogram). Why? Because Kuon is in America right now! It's definitely plot-related… not because I forgot and was too lazy to change it… Certainly not! Heh…

Also... PSYCH! If anyone was reading the author's notes, did I get you? LOL, "character death"... HAH! Rick's plot shield is still going strong.

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 **MAILBAG** **\- Each week, I choose the 5+ most interesting reviews and respond to them here. So leave your thoughts on this chapter (or any chapter!) in the Review box below! Love you guys!**

 **MWEH** – OMG, you scared me! Haha, when I read the first sentence of your review, I thought you were talking about MY chapter! And then I saw the bit about Kimiko, and I was like, 'Oh, it's the manga chapter!' Haha mini-heart attack… As for this most recent manga chapter, yeah I have a feeling that Kimiko is still scheming SOMETHING, and Erika a couple chapters back, asked one of her servants to protect Kyoko. Erika says she has a favor to ask of him, but Sensei cut away from the scene before we could see what it was. And I think the producer said that all the other Momiji candidates except Kimiko and Kyoko quit! So it's just the Chidori candidates! As for your guess on the last FF chapter, *dingdingding* we have a winner! Yup, you guessed it right, that Kuon caused the loud noise to escape after Rick's phone call outed him. Did I scare you into thinking that Rick was going to die this chapter? Hehe It would have been pretty anti-climactic if he'd died here. Thanks again for the review, MWEH! Always look forward to discussing the manga with you!

 **Shizuhoe** – Your wish is my command! Tina did indeed end up kicking that guy's ass, just not in the way anyone anticipated. She did it while defending her man, though, so the stakes were definitely raised haha. As for Shizumino Kaiso, he's a good guy innately, but… well, I guess you'll just have to see. ;) And glad at least one of my readers can appreciate some good foreshadowing! Haha Thanks again Shizuhoe! Hope you're well!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Vacation! Nice! Where did you go? I'm going to Hong Kong next month to visit some extended family, but I really want to go to Europe at some point! Your review made me pretty happy :) Thanks for keeping up, even though I'm sure being on vacation is probably 1000x more interesting! Haha Also, glad that some of my readers are able to appreciate some hefty foreshadowing! Hope you had a happy New Year and made it home safely!

 **brennakai** – Did I scare you into thinking Rick was going to die this chapter? Jkjk, hopefully didn't scare you too much, because if he had died to this rando, it'd be pretty anti-climactic xD As for the manga chapter, yeah… I'm definitely hurting for some actual plot development! Ugh, this pace would be ok if it was biweekly, but monthly… It's just painful. Haha but from what I hear, drawing manga is a big stressor, so I guess I should cut Sensei some slack… Haha Thanks again brennakai!

 **Ashenvale** – LOL! Don't mock my failed attempts at living like a responsible adult! Jkjk – When I get busy, house stuff falls by the wayside. For example, after my full past two weeks at work, my fridge was empty again… and I ran out of eggs… Again. Hahaha And I have no more socks to wear, because I haven't done laundry in 2 weeks. Solution: buy more socks. xD And lol, foreshadowing! Hope you liked the new chapter! Thanks again Ashenvale~

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Thank you again for all of your lovely reviews, faves, and alerts! I truly cherish each and every one of them! :) Love ya! AND SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!


	32. Chapter 32

Hello Loyal Readers!

REUPLOAD: I've reuploaded the chapter to be a bit more polished and to have the Mailbag section at the end. Thanks for being patient during this time of transition! *love y'all!*

Today, Kuon gets a step closer to his dream but a step farther from his friends.

Let me know your thoughts in the review box below! Not going to lie: your reviews and responses really spur me to write more and better stories! Hope you all are enjoying the story as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

 **Updates will go back to every other week!**

 **-x-**

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 **CH32**

"The arrests made today could not have been possible without the brave and dedicated agents of the CIA's Los Angeles division," Kuu stated into the microphone. He glanced down briefly at his prepared statement on the podium before picking up with the next line as cameras flashed all around him.

Curled up on the couch in Rick's apartment, Kuon watched as a news banner unscrolled at the bottom of the TV screen denoting his father as "Kuu Hizuri, CIA LA Division Section Chief". As his father continued with the press briefing, Kuon felt a strong hand clap him on the shoulder. He glanced up to see Rick leaning over the back of the couch and grinning down at him.

As Kuu continued on TV, thanking the Japanese embassy for their partnership in taking down the Japan-based smuggling ring, Kuon pouted up at Rick. "So they're not going to tell the real story?"

Rick raised his brows in feigned surprise. "Real story?"

"You know," Kuon shot back with a good-natured roll of his green eyes. "The whole thing about the smuggling ring being a cover-up… You didn't think I'd actually fall for that, did you?"

"This guy!" With a small hop, Rick vaulted over the back of the couch and tackled Kuon, giving him a solid noogie. "Think you're _so_ smart, huh?"

"I'm serious, Rick!" Trying with limited success to swat Rick's hands away, Kuon laughed as he attempted to fend his mentor off. The teen heard Kaiso's laugh as he entered the room.

"Now, Rick-san." The Japanese agent was carrying a tray of cake slices. "I think Kuon-kun has earned an explanation."

Leaving his mentee gasping for air with laughter, Rick finally leaned back, still grinning. He took a plate of cake off the tray Kaiso offered. "I absolutely agree! But let's see how much he's figured out on his own first."

"Fine by me!" The Hizuri rubbed his hands together eagerly as Kaiso settled on the couch, Tina coming in from the kitchen with a tray full of sparkling champagne flutes.

As Kuon explained that even though the gang was running its operation out of Little Tokyo, it was pretty obvious that they were not Japanese, Rick and Kaiso nodded, the American grinning and the Japanese man giving a small, proud smile. Also paying attention now, Tina set her tray on the table and settled on the couch between Kuon and Rick.

She quirked a manicured brow. "Well, Einstein, if they weren't a Japanese gang, what were they?"

Kuon shot her a smug grin. "North Korean."

Impressed, Tina mimed a silent golf clap and motioned for the teen to continue. Kuon explained how he hypothesized that the gang was posing as counterfeiters and smugglers of luxury goods, but their real intent was in human trafficking. The workers at their warehouses were the real "goods". That was why Tina had been so intent on filming the people and not the contraband, and why in the alley, the man in the black shirt had said she'd asked for the wrong goods.

"And Kimura Jin was not really named Kimura Jin," Kuon added. "His name was Kim Jin-ra, probably a North Korean spy. His coworker from the bar was the guy–"

Kuon froze.

Legs and a single arm stuck out under the cement pipe. Blood the color of wine puddled on the ground.

"The guy whose picture you took at the construction site," Kaiso cut in tactfully. He smiled gently at Kuon. "You ended up getting photographic evidence of all three ringleaders meeting, in addition to the notebook containing all their buyers."

"Y-Yeah," the blonde teen said, returning the smile shakily. "That's what I was going to say."

"Hey now." Picking up on the tension, Tina brightened and reached for the tray, passing glasses of champagne all around. She offered a glass to Kuon with a kind, understanding smile. "Come on, guys. We're here to celebrate a job well done."

"Uh… Sorry!" Kuon held his hands up and shook his head automatically. "I'm still underage, remember?"

With a sneaky sidelong glance, Tina shrugged and gently palmed the glass into one of Kuon's open hands. The new diamond ring on her fourth finger winked in the bright light. Grinning, Kuon took the glass.

"To us!" Rick proclaimed, raising his glass. "And to a job well done!"

"Cheers!" Tina and Kuon shouted at the same time Kaiso exclaimed, "Kanpai!"

As Kaiso and Tina discussed the PSIA agent's impending return to his home country, Rick leaned over behind Tina, beckoning to Kuon. The dark-haired man tossed a small square box to the teen.

Confused, Kuon barely caught the box. Rick shot him a wink.

"Open it!"

Inside the white cardstock box on a padded bed of crushed red velvet lay a simple yet elegant watch with a brown leather wrist strap. Kuon immediately recognized it as the one that Rick always wore.

"My mentor at the CIA gave me this watch on the day I graduated from the new recruit program," Rick noted with a far-off smile. "He sucked me into this work. Saved my life more than a few times. Taught me everything I know. And now, it's yours."

In wonderment at this momentous gift, Kuon turned the timepiece over and over in his hands, smoothing his fingers over the worn glass of the watch face. Each scratch undoubtedly held a tale, a story of bravery and skill and adventure. Then he paused and slowly lowered the watch back into the box, closing the lid.

"Thank you, but… It's not right Rick." Kuon turned away. "I'm not even in the training program. Who knows if I'll ever get in…"

"Well…"

"And don't try to just make me feel better. I know that it's a long shot, even with all this new experience–."

"Kuon."

"What?"

"You start Monday."

The words took a second to register. Kuon's head snapped up so fast, his hair went flying out of his face.

"What!"

"I said…" Rick, true to form, was studying his fingernails nonchalantly but was trying to hide a sly grin. "That you're in the training program."

Stunned, the Hizuri could only listen as Rick continued on smugly, "Someone must've put in very good word for you. Wonder who it could've been…"

Tina leaned back into their conversation to tap her fiancé brusquely on the shoulder. "Hey! You weren't the only one… Stop trying to take all the credit!"

"Tina?" The blonde teen's eyes widened. "You too?"

"I believe Albright-san's words were, 'brave and reliable under-fire, and a credit to his upbringing,'" Kaiso shared, hiding a small smile from behind his champagne glass. Kuon felt something almost like tears prick at the corners of his eyes. A wobbly smile passed over his face.

As Rick tried to prevent a blushing Tina from pummeling the Japanese man, Kaiso turned to Kuon as well and bowed slightly in his seat. "I too have put in the appropriate commendation with the PSIA and U.S. government."

Kuon bowed back in his seat as deeply as he could before launching himself up to surprise the man with a hug. Kaiso was only taken aback for a moment before chuckling and somewhat awkwardly returning the very American gesture.

"Do not forget that you will have a friend and ally on the other side of the Pacific," Kaiso remarked as Kuon released him. "Maybe we will see each other again one day. You would get to meet my partner. He is quite the… interesting character. He is an expert in disguises."

"Sure," Kuon replied, a bit more misty-eyed than he would have wanted. "Let's meet again some day."

"Hey!" Rick shouted in the background. "What about me? I did 80% of the paperwork! C'mon, Kuon!"

As the other three agents bickered light-heartedly, Kuon opened the box and strapped the watch to his wrist. In the reflection of the glass, he could see his bright smile shining back at him.

 **-x-**

 **-ONE YEAR LATER-**

Sighing after another long day, Kuon walked down the neat, white-tiled hall of the Los Angeles CIA training facility. With one hand, he massaged a sore spot next to his neck, and with his other, he scrolled through the day's training schedule on his phone.

Sniper rifle basics and practice was done for the day, but it had left its mark on his clavicle where the rifle would kickback with each shot. Kuon cricked his neck to the right and then to the left, trying to ease the tension in his muscles.

It was a strenuous schedule, but then again, what else could he expect from his instructor? Marcus Alexander was a legend among the trainers, and he got to handpick the best of the best out of each batch of new recruits for his own private program.

Kuon grinned. By some stroke of luck, Marcus had been watching him during an early sparring match with a classmate. After knocking the cocky (and racist) twenty-year-old out with a particularly nasty axe kick to the temple, Kuon had taken a water break and had been approached by the tall, wavy-haired trainer.

 _"Hey, kid. Got a name?"_

 _"Kuon… Kuon Shuuhei."_

 _Marcus had grinned. "Well, Kuon Shuuhei. Color me impressed. You're going to be my trainee from now on. I can tell – you've got a lot of potential. You're definitely special."_

Without the Hizuri name, without relying on his parentage, and by his own merit, Kuon had earned himself a one-way ticket to the accelerated course. Kuon had no regrets about registering under his father's original, and less well-known, Japanese last name.

As expected, Marcus Alexander was a strict teacher and a demanding trainer, expecting only the best from his handpicked batch of recruits. His curriculum was rigorous – 5k run every morning, conditioning, didactic lessons, sparring, weapons practice, then free study and practice time until bed – but rewarding. With only four other young men in his class, instead of the standard twenty, Kuon really felt the benefit of the extra attention and camaraderie.

Clenching his fists open and closed in front of him, Kuon marveled as he briefly reviewed all that he had learned in the past year. He knew so many other methods of taking down enemies now.

But…

Letting his arms drop, Kuon stuffed his hands in his pockets. The lessons were growing more and more out of his comfort zone. How to go straight for fatalities in hand-to-hand, where to stab to cause maximal lethality with minimal noise, what everyday items to repurpose if one had to conduct an impromptu interrogation…

Kuon suppressed a slight shiver. He would never be able to look at spoons the same way ever again.

On the other hand… Marcus had been really proud of him that day. Kuon had picked the techniques up so quickly. Praise had been abundant lately, and it felt so _good_.

' _Keep it up, Kuon,'_ Marcus had said with a grin. _'You're going places. You're definitely special.'_

For once, Kuon felt proud of his accomplishments, and someone else felt proud of him – due to his own effort and merit.

Sighing deeply, the sixteen-year-old shifted his hands out of his pockets and continued down the hall. He was probably just overthinking all these things. Maybe all the CIA recruits learned these things.

Maybe he could try to ask Rick… But Rick was still gone on that mission in South America. Kuon hadn't been able to see or call his mentor in almost half a year.

Unthinkingly, Kuon's hand drifted to the watch on his wrist. When Rick came back, would he be disappointed that Kuon was learning this? Rick had made his position on killing in the field very clear. Well…Marcus didn't think it was such a big deal… Maybe it wasn't.

"Kuon!"

Speak of the devil… Kuon perked up to see the tall, fair-skinned American striding down the hall toward him. The trainer's light-brown wavy hair was slicked with perspiration, and he was wearing a muscle tank and sweat pants. Probably just got finished training another one of his groups in hand-to-hand, Kuon guessed. Like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar, Kuon snatched his hand away from the watch.

"Hi Marcus." Marcus liked to keep his groups informal. While the other recruits had to snap to attention and salute their instructors, Marcus always waved away their salutes as 'unnecessary bullshit'.

The CIA trainer grinned and stopped before the blonde. "I almost thought you'd walk right into me. What's on your mind?"

Kuon had to catch his eyes before they widened in panic. He didn't know why, but his first instinct was to hide these sprouting doubts. Sometimes – rarely – but just sometimes… Marcus' eyes would get this _look_. "Oh. Nothing much."

His instructor scoffed. "C'mon, you can tell me. I'm your trainer, not your mother."

Resisting the urge to flinch – Kuon had been out of contact with his parents for the past year by Marcus' standard practice – the blonde recruit hesitated then he ended up spitting out, "To be honest, the classes are– They're–"

"Making you uncomfortable?" Marcus filled in the rest of Kuon's fragmented thought. The briefest flash of a frown crossed his brow before it was smooth and free – again the easy-going and in-control instructor. Marcus sighed. "The killing part, I'm guessing."

He reached forward and patted Kuon's shoulder, the man's hand coming to rest there.

"Don't worry so much, kid," he said with a reassuring smile. "They're just bad guys, after all. An enemy is an enemy. They're not going to show you any mercy. Why should you?"

"But…" _But Rick had said…_

"Hey," Marcus stated as he stepped forward and leaned in slightly. The hand resting on Kuon's shoulder gave a tight squeeze that felt the briefest bit painful before the man relaxed his hold. "Don't worry your silly little head about things like that. You want to become a CIA agent or not? You want to make your parents proud or what?"

Feeling a dagger ghost violently through his heart, Kuon averted his gaze. His parents... "Yes sir."

"Good…" Leaning back, Marcus regarded the teen with another smile. "You're almost done with your training. No need to waste all of your hard work. Now, just head back to your dorm, and–"

"Marcus!"

The familiar male voice echoed down the hall. Kuon glanced up sharply. It couldn't be, but–!

But there was Rick striding down the white tiled floors toward them. Getting over his shock, Kuon felt a large grin cross his face. "Rick?"

"Well, well…" Marcus stepped up next to Kuon, a smirk on his lips. "If it isn't my big bro!"

"Big bro?" Kuon glanced between the two men, confused. In his confusion, Kuon missed it as the dark-haired CIA agent took that last step forward and took a heavy swing at his trainer.

Light on his feet, Marcus dodged the punch, but was too off-balance to escape Rick's fast follow-up right hook. Kuon watched in bewildered horror as Rick's punch grazed Marcus' cheek, toppling the instructor into the wall.

"Wh-what the hell, man!" Marcus spluttered, hand flying to nurse the immediate swelling on his face.

Rick didn't give him a chance to recover. He was instantly fisting the front of the trainer's shirt, pulling so hard that the brunette's feet barely brushed against the ground.

"Don't bother with your damn excuses, Marcus," Rick snarled, his lip curling in disgust. "You enrolled Kuu's son in your disgusting little program, didn't you!"

"Rick…?" Reeling from Rick's abrupt outburst, Kuon stood uncertainly between his former mentor and current teacher. Why was Rick attacking Marcus? They were brothers? Why did Rick have such a bad view of the accelerated program? Then the rest of Rick's accusation sank in, and a wave of panic hit him. Rick had just outed him as Kuu's son.

However, Marcus was more smug than surprised. "Of course. Who could resist? Just think of that Hizuri blood being pushed to greater heights."

"Greater heights?" Rick snapped back. "You call being a _child assassin_ , 'greater heights'?"

"What?" Kuon froze. Assassin? Did Rick mean… Kuon felt a wave of nausea crest over him. Yes, it all made sense. The accelerated course wasn't just a faster program for skilled young recruits. They were teaching him a whole different set of skills than the standard class. Kuon grit his teeth. Marcus had been right… Kuon had been special after all.

"And you!" Shoving his apparent brother away, Rick turned on Kuon, dark eyes flashing. "I thought I taught you better. How could you go along with this bastard all this time!"

"What!" Kuon repeated, incredulously. His voice sounded too high and young for his liking. "Rick, I don't even– I didn't know–!"

"You didn't know?" The dark haired agent snarled as he stepped toward the teen. "Don't give me that bullshit. You're smarter than that, Kuon. I expected the son of Kuu Hizuri to have some damn common sense."

Because Kuu Hizuri would have been able to understand. Because Kuu Hizuri wouldn't have been duped. Because Kuu Hizuri wouldn't have been trained as an assassin.

In an instant, his fear flashed and evaporated into raw, familiar rage. Stomping a step forward, Kuon glared up at his former mentor and snapped, "You know what? Screw you! What the hell do you know about me, Rick?"

Not waiting for an answer, Kuon spun on his heel and stormed off.

 **-x-**

"Dammit!" Kuon slammed his fists down on his desk. Cursing, he violently swept his hands across his desk, scattering books and papers and pens to the ground. His hands, bitter and enraged, clenched and unclenched on the wood.

How could he have been such a fool? The classes, the separation, the ego-stroking!

Kuon felt suffocated, his breath suddenly coming in short, shallow pants. Marcus Alexander had been grooming him to become an assassin. And Marcus had known that Kuon was not a Shuuhei but a Hizuri… He had practically just admitted that Kuon had been chosen _because_ he was a Hizuri.

 _Marcus smiling down at him as he ruffled the teen's blonde locks. 'You're definitely special.'_

How much had been the truth? Or had everything just been a lie?

Suddenly, he felt as if he really couldn't breathe. Scrambling from his desk to his window, Kuon fumbled with the lock before flinging his windows both open. Sticking his head out, Kuon sucked in deep, panicked gulps.

Domestic arguments and police sirens echoed through the summer night. Even this late, the Los Angeles air was choked with smog.

The teen slid away from the window onto his bed, his arm cast miserably over his closed eyes. Rick had been right. He should have been smarter. Kuu Hizuri's son should have been smarter.

Kuon deflated, his arm sliding down and away as he stared at the white popcorn-textured ceiling. Had this whole year been in vain? How was he going to catch up to his father now? Would he ever?

A knock sounded on his door.

Kuon ignored it. If it was his classmates, he definitely didn't want to talk to them.

' _Hello! How are you? By the way, did you know that we are being bred to be emotionless killing machines? Oh you did? I guess I was the only one_ stupid _enough not to figure it out.'_

A familiar voice echoed hollowly through the dorm's flimsy wooden door. "Kuon… Hey… It's Rick."

Blinking himself out of his thoughts, the blonde automatically turned toward the door before feeling the weight of his mentor's earlier disappointment and accusations. Kuon rolled over in bed, his back to the door.

"Hey, Kuon, I know you're in there. I… You…" Behind him, Rick's voice stopped and started like an old car that just couldn't seem to catch. "Just… hear me out, ok?

Tucking his head to his chest, Kuon resisted the urge to curl into a ball.

"I…" A heavy sigh from beyond the door. "I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions. I didn't mean to accuse you."

As Rick continued, Kuon rolled back over and stared hard at the door. His gaze drew downward toward his wrist. The glass face of the watch winked up at him in the yellow light.

With a heavy sigh, the teen rose from the bed and shuffled across the floor. His hand hovered above the doorknob, unsure.

"Rick…"

There was a sudden whistling through the air. A metallic clank as something landed on the ground behind him. Kuon looked back, alarmed to see a can rolling across the floor from the window. The can was spewing thick gray smoke that quickly filled the room, obscuring his vision.

Shouting in alarm, the Hizuri desperately dove to the floor, trying to find the metal can so he could chuck it back outside.

His hands scrabbled madly on the wooden floor, searching. One hand accidentally connected with a metal object that spun away from his desperate grasp.

Behind him, he could hear someone pounding on his door. Rick?

But he was so sleepy. What had he been doing again? Why were his hands moving so slowly? All Kuon wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep.

Blink slowly. Sleep… Rick was at the door, and Kuon had to do something, but… Sleep was more important right now.

The last thing Kuon remembered was a man in a white porcelain mask swinging himself into his window, picking him up like a rag doll, and throwing him over his shoulder. All while Rick pounded desperately on the door.

Then darkness.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Happy early April Fools! Haha, glad I got some of ya! ;D JAPAN! If you couldn't tell already, I'm a bit of a weeb. Love Japan, though last time I went, I ended up catching the flu and my husband had these debilitating cluster headaches, so it was a less than ideal traveling situation. *cries* Hope you had lots of fun!

 **MWEH** – Muhaha! Yes, I'll consider us even then! Gotcha! Rick is still alive, and Kaiso is still a good guy :) As for trying to get friends hooked on SB irl, I also have a good friend who I've tasked with reading SB, but she gave up after the Kuu arc. *cries* Hope your friend is at least still going! At the rate that chapters are coming out, your friend is at least bound to catch up before the decade turns over. Haha…ha *cries again* I agree that Kimiko is up to something! I don't know if you've read the spoilers, but this chapter will push the story forward bit by bit, so I'm looking forward to the actual translation coming out! Hope you're doing well, MWEH!

 **Guest** – Dingdingding! We have a winner! Haha, your 2nd guess was right. It was Korean! Though I am technically Korean, I don't speak the language and I had to use Google translate, so who knows if the dialogue actually says what I want it to. *facepalm* Thanks so much for the encouragement! And don't worry, I'm not offended by much, and I do happen to celebrate Christmas and New Years! Thanks again, my loyal anonymous follower! (Leave a name next time so I can refer to you specifically!)

 **brennakai** – Thanks for the review! And I agree, the only reason why I dragged out that mission for so long was to set up that moment – where Kuon is learning why Rick and the gang are doing what they are doing, and so that he can learn to be more cautious from here on out. Thanks again! Hope you're doing well!

 **-x-**

* * *

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR REVIEWS, FAVES, AND ALERTS! They really help me keep this going amidst the craziness of life. **Don't forget that updates will go back to every other week!**


	33. Chapter 33

Hello loyal readers!

Can you guys believe it? It's been over a YEAR since I posted the first chapter of this story! Crazy, huh? On this anniversary-type-thing I'd like to thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart for sticking with this story even though it's a little different than your typical SB fic. And even though it's turning out to be about double the original length I planned. *cries*

I've been really into Star Wars recently, and I really want to see Kyoko and Ren in the SW universe! I started working on a one shot, then lost motivation/ realized I should spend my writing time finishing THIS fic. Lol

Today we get some Kyoko time and the end of Kuon's tale of tragedy. Hope I don't break too many hearts today!

Love you all!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH33**

"Um… Tsuruga-san…?"

Ripped from his memories, Ren blinked and glanced up at Kyoko. He felt like he had just been flung across time and space. A trans-dimensional transplant.

"Tsuruga-san," Kyoko hazarded again, eyes darting up then quickly glancing off to the side. "Would you… Do you..."

"Don't worry, Mogami-san," Ren sighed. "I'll be fine to finish the story."

"Ummm, it's not that…"

Ren glanced around them. They were still sitting on the bathroom floor. The shower continued to run in the background, the water long since having turned cold. He groaned as he reached over and turned the water off. He knew she hated waste of any kind, and the water had been running for this long. No wonder she had interrupted him.

"Uhh…" His partner was trying to apparently twist her fingers into a knot. She looked uncomfortable sitting on the bathroom's hard tile. "Actually…"

Ren shook his head. He had gotten carried away. He supposed his memories had trumped his manners. "My apologies, Mogami-san. Let's move to the living room. The tile isn't a very forgiving place to sit."

He stood and offered a helping hand down to her. She looked at it, then up at him, and then away again.

Ren's heart sank as his hand dropped. He had forgotten in the disorientation that he had just revealed two hours-worth about his horrible past to the love of his life. The perfect senpai she had built up in her mind had probably just come crashing down around her ears. It was a wonder she hadn't already deserted him… And he hadn't even gotten to the worst part yet…

"Actually…"

Past his despondency, Ren noticed Kyoko rising to stand beside him, yet, his heart pricked in pain, she would not meet his eyes still. A small blush dusted her cheeks.

"Actually, Tsuruga-san." Kyoko coughed into her hand, embarrassed. "Would you mind putting a shirt on?"

 **-x-**

Consciousness came in gradually increasing waves, like ripples of water over the surface of a pond. Kuon blinked, eyelids groggy and slow. The shapes were blurry. His eyes closed. Blinked, then closed again. He wanted his hand to come up to swipe over his eyes, but it didn't respond.

Was he paralyzed?

This irrational, yet panic-inducing thought jolted him into consciousness. There was a wooden rattle and then pain in his wrists. Actually there was pain everywhere, as if he'd been tossed around like a potato sack. But there was a particular, scorching strain in his wrists and ankles.

Kuon gasped, wincing as the fiery pain settled into his conscious mind. His gaze darted about the room. Concrete, bare; dusty floors; he was sitting in a chair – it was wooden. There was a man in the corner.

A man? His brain processing the information again, Kuon zeroed in on the other occupant of the room.

It was a man sitting on another wooden chair, one leg perched on the edge of the seat as he calmly regarded Kuon. The man was a dichotomy in all black – combat pants, steel-toed boots, shirt, and trench coat – but on his face he wore a white mask. The mask was smooth, completely blank, except for two deep, dark eyeholes that seemed to bore into Kuon's soul.

That white mask. Kuon remembered what had happened back at his dorm room. His throat suddenly felt dry, and an icy chill streaked down his spine. This was a kidnapping, expertly executed.

His first instinct was to struggle and scream, to get away. That's when he noticed the gag across his mouth and the bindings that wrenched his arms behind the chair and that tied his feet to the bottom rung. His fingers scrabbled along them. Zip ties?

Half experimentally, half hopefully, Kuon roughly jerked his hands apart. No luck. He skewered the man in the corner with a scathing glare.

As if response, the masked man rose slowly from his chair and cocked his head to the side, regarding the teen. Kuon's breathing quickened frantically, hot against the rough cloth of the gag. Despite the staccato pace of his heartbeat, he continued to glare up at the man.

"You have been unconscious for some time," the man said, his voice deep and garbled through what Kuon supposed was an audio scrambler built into the mask. "I wish to give you some water. I do not want for you to die, but you need to promise to be quiet."

Hell no. Kuon struggled more at that.

"Or –" The mask's eyeholes stared emptily at Kuon "–I could remove one of your digits for every syllable you utter. Where you are going, you will be just as valuable without fingers and toes."

Immediately, Kuon froze. His glare faltered, and his breath quickened again.

Apparently satisfied at his captor's fear, the masked man stalked forward, his tread surprisingly silent in his heavy boots. As the man approached and produced a water canteen, the Hizuri scrambled in his mind, desperately straining past his terror to recall his training.

The man curled a finger under the gag and pulled it down. That was when Kuon acted.

Pushing back with his toes, Kuon tipped his chair back, then swiftly strained the opposite direction with his body. This rocking motion propelled him forward, and he timed that momentum with stomp of his feet. With a hard crack, the bottom rung of the chair snapped out from under him, and he felt his ankles slide free of their restraints.

With a snarl, Kuon leapt to his feet and turned on the man. A brief blur at the corner of his vision was all the warning he had. Something solid connected with his knees, and with the bulky, awkward weight of the chair still attached to his upper body, Kuon toppled gracelessly to the floor.

Groaning and incapacitated in pain, Kuon couldn't defend as the man again kicked him, this time in the gut instead of his knees. He tried crying out, but all the air had seemed to vacate his battered lungs. The blonde teen tasted the tangy metallic of blood in the back of his mouth.

"Hmph." Above him through the fog of pain, Kuon could vaguely hear the man speaking. A heavy foot toed his flank to roll him onto his belly, coming to rest on the small of his back. "I guess you don't value your appendages very much."

A sharp, metallic _shniiik_ rang out next to his ear. His breath hitching, Kuon's gaze shot to the side. The man had drawn a long hunting knife from a sheath on his waist.

The dark eyeholes of the white mask regarded him. "Escape attempts will not be tolerated, Kuon Hizuri."

Kuon's breath caught again. The kidnapping hadn't been random.

"Do not bother denying it," the man continued, sinking his boot deeper into the teen's spine. "I know exactly who you are. Who your parents are…"

Kuon's eyes widened.

"Kuu and Juliena… They would give anything to get their precious, beloved son back in one piece. _Any_ interesting information, _any_ treasonous action, _any_ suicide mission… The possibilities are endless."

Unbidden, frustrated and fearful tears stung the corners of his eyes as the man's words sank in. Kuon grit his teeth. The CIA recruiters at the very beginning had been right. He was the chink in his parents' armor. What a fool he had been to think that he could stand apart from them, to live a life outside of their shadow – if only to protect them. His dream had always been a selfish one – he knew, but had willfully ignored it – because any and all future CIA activity would put him in the line of fire, and that line could always be traced back to his parents. This was all his fault.

The best possibility would be for him to take his own life and stop this madness. Kuon's eyes drifted to the man's knife.

Unless – a small bubble of hope swelled in his breast – someone came for him first… After all, Rick had been just on the other side of the door when this masked bastard had grabbed him.

"Hmph. Do not waste your time on daydreams," the kidnapper continued, watching his victim's face closely. "There's no one who knows where you are. No one will be coming to rescue you."

It was at that moment that the explosion rocked the concrete floor. Scared and surprised, the Hizuri yelped as small pieces of debris crumbled down from the ceiling onto his prone body. Another, smaller explosion rippled across the floor underneath him, followed by a peppering of gunfire and shouts.

"Typical Americans." The masked man sighed, and Kuon's heart leapt to his throat in hope as his assailant stepped from his back and sheathed his knife. "Always so rude and noisy. Excuse me."

The masked kidnapper left. Kuon could hear the heavy deadbolt slide across the door as his captor retreated.

After a moment of shock and another moment to make sure that his kidnapper was truly gone, Kuon wriggled around on the floor and, though it took a minute, managed to wrench his arms in their sockets up over his head so his hands were now in front of him. Picking himself up from the floor, wrists still tied to the back of the chair, Kuon set the wooden weight on its side and reached toward his shoes.

Fingers flying, he quickly untied his shoelaces and then retied them together around his wrist's zipties. Rapidly, he began sawing the zipties back and forth, again and again and again. Eventually, the shoe laces held. The zipties did not.

With a satisfying _snap_ , Kuon's hands flew upward, finally freed. Kuon instantly ripped the gag off his mouth, sucking in a long breath.

Listening to the gunfire in the distance, Kuon looked down at his unfettered hands, flexing them open and closed. Then with a grin, he looked up at the door and snarled, "Alright, you bastard… I'll show you what happens when you mess with the son of Kuu and Juliena Hizuri."

 **-x-**

From the sound of it, Kuon knew that his captor must have wanted him alive, so… He started screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs, along with a healthy dose of "HELP ME! THEY'RE KILLING ME!"

It was a bit theatrical but effective. An armed guard burst through the door and straight into his trap. As the dark-haired guard was staring in puzzlement at the apparently empty room with the broken chair on the ground, he didn't even turn around as Kuon leapt out from behind the door, clutching a chair leg.

Swing, batter, batter.

Within moments, Kuon held the guard's heavy rifle in his hands. Hands that wouldn't have known what to do a year ago, now swiftly unclipped and checked the magazine for a bullet count, relocked the magazine into place with a satisfying _snap_ , and rotated the settings on the scope, getting a feel for the sights. A couple of quick adjustments and the AR-15 was now to Kuon's preferred specifications.

A brief pat-down of the guard revealed a sheathed knife and a ring of keys. Clipping the keyring onto his belt, Kuon checked the coast was clear outside his cell, and locked the deadbolt of the door behind him.

With the comforting weight of the automated rifle in his hands, Kuon couldn't help the grin that slid across his face. These assholes had kidnapped the wrong kid.

However, while the gun was a solid back-up plan, his training always emphasized the old saying, "Discretion is the better part of valor." And since Kuon wasn't planning on dying today, he was going to be _very_ discrete.

Bit by bit, as his fear subsided, his training took over. Expertly, he ducked around corners and into closets to avoid the handful of guards that crossed his path. Whatever nefarious organization had kidnapped him, it was definitely not hurting for numbers of goons.

However, as time went on, the blonde noticed that the number of guards running into him were becoming fewer and fewer. Maybe the assaulting forces outside were putting up quite a fight. But something else was puzzling him. These men weren't speaking English. It sounded familiar, similar to Japanese, but not only that… He had heard this language somewhere before.

Kuon came to a fork in the hallway. One went left, and one went right. A quick peek told him that the right hallway was a better option. It led to a flight of stairs. The ground would be more heavily guarded but if he reached the roof, maybe he could be evac'ed by air?

Trying to tamp down his internal hope-panic, Kuon paused at the door at the top of the stairs, listening. Shouting and gunfire. But it seemed distant and muffled. Wary, he reached up and twisted open the doorknob.

It wasn't the roof. Beyond the door stretched a long, metal catwalk, and below lay an enormous warehouse. The sparse sounds of a gunfight echoed through the open doorway. Swallowing heavily, Kuon peeked his head out.

The warehouse was a scene of carnage. Behind stacks of wooden pallets and cardboard boxes, dead bodies lay scattered everywhere, victims of an apparent firefight. Not only were there the black-garbed guards that Kuon had seen earlier, but also a handful of American-uniformed soldiers that lay on the ground; a few weren't moving. As he scanned the gory scene, the gunshots echoing throughout the warehouse had thinned out until they stopped entirely.

Then there was a shout – "You bastard!" – and two figured emerged into a little central clearing. One was wearing a white mask, and the other–

"Rick!" Kuon gasped quietly, watching his dark-haired mentor as he leapt at the white-masked kidnapper. Rick landed a decent series of body blows on his adversary before he got slammed in the side of the head with a vicious crescent kick.

Before Kuon's conscious mind could keep up, his body had started to quickly yet silently make its way down the catwalk toward the center of the room where he would have a better shot. He knew that the only reason Rick was engaging in hand-to-hand at this point was because both he and his opponent had apparently run out of ammo.

As the Hizuri quickly lay himself flat on the ground to minimize movement and error, he set the scope of his rifle on the fight and he knew. If he got an open shot, he was taking it. His last CIA training lesson had been on long-distance precision shooting. Assassin's training or not – hell if he wasn't going to put it to good use.

Watching the fight through the scope, Kuon honed in on the action, watching Rick duck under successive kicks from his enemy. The black-garbed man similarly blocked Rick's series of punches and knee strikes, his mask flat and apathetic as he defended and counter-attacked. There were a couple of moments where Kuon almost had a shot, but either the kidnapper moved or Rick darted into the scope's frame at the last second.

Finally, Rick landed a grazing hit against his attacker's face, using a backwards cartwheel kick to simultaneously stomp him in the chest and in the face while flipping back to gain some distance. The man dodged, but not soon enough. Kuon saw a flash of white as the mask pinwheeled off and away from the kidnapper's face. And that was when Rick froze.

"You–!"

"Yes, Richard." His back still to Kuon, the man spoke. He straightened, brushing dirt off the shoulder of his black trench coat. "Can you please wipe that shocked look off your face? It is quite unbecoming of a CIA agent."

An uncomfortable knot twisted in Kuon's stomach, and he tightened his grip on the rifle. The kidnapper was still facing Rick, and the teen couldn't see his face. But unaltered, the man's voice seemed familiar.

Through the scope, Kuon watched as Rick grimaced and shifted back a step.

"Why?" Rick snarled, his hands curling once again into fists. "I thought we were allies! We've been on so many missions together! Did they mean nothing to you?"

There was a low, bitter chuckle. The man cocked his head to the side. "You of all people know how this works, Rick. We are only friends until someone in our governments decides we are not. Then all bets are off."

"Bullshit!" Swiping his hand through the air, Rick stepped forward again, thoroughly enraged. Kuon could almost see his mentor's fist trembling. "We're men! We are _not_ just tools."

"That is just the way the system works." The man's voice was flat.

Rick took another step forward, stabbing a finger in the other man's direction. "Then change the system!"

There was silence. Kuon felt his heartbeat in his chest. The bad feeling in his gut twisted again. Then it leapt to the base of his throat. The unmasked kidnapper had reached into his waistband and had pulled out a pistol.

"Dammit!" Kuon hissed. Who the hell was this guy? Should he shoot? But Rick clearly knew him.

"All you Americans talk far too much." The man was speaking, his voice still flat and emotionless. "I do wish you would shut up."

"Why?" Undeterred by the firearm pointed squarely at the center of his forehead, Rick stepped forward again. He growled, "Am I hitting a little too close to home? That's the truth. Isn't it? You don't want to do this…"

The man cocked the gun. His voice lifted up at the edges, beginning to sound desperate. "It's too late, Richard. Back. Down."

Through the scope, Kuon saw the man's hand trembling at the trigger.

"Rick!"

Kuon didn't remember yelling, but he must have because Rick glanced up directly at the catwalk. The kidnapper also turned to look.

It was Kaiso's face.

It was Kaiso's eyes widening as he saw Kuon on the catwalk.

It was Kaiso turning back, gun raised to shoot Rick.

Kuon pulled the trigger.

Then suddenly, inexplicably, irrevocably, it was no longer Kaiso's head in the crosshairs of his scope. It was Rick's.

There was a shot, there must have been, but Kuon didn't hear it. He couldn't hear anything. Was it the ringing in his ears from the gunshot or the sheer shock from watching his mentor's head – his friend's head – Rick's head, just –

Kuon couldn't lift his eyes up. Couldn't move. The rifle tumbled out of his hands. Reality replaced the view from the scope, and it just confirmed that everything was REAL. It hadn't just been a nightmare. It was now a nightmare from which he would never awaken.

Rick was on the ground. There was blood. So much blood.

Kuon was vaguely aware of Kaiso scrambling up from the floor. The Japanese agent had somehow gotten pinned underneath Rick. He was now shouting at Rick, something, something that Kuon couldn't hear. The ringing in his ears was too loud. The shaky, shallow breaths he was taking were too loud. The memory in his brain was too loud.

The world moved in slow motion.

Kaiso stood – Kuon saw from some part that wasn't staring at Rick's bloodied body on the ground – he stood and raised his pistol at the catwalk. Kuon could only stare back, arms too heavy to defend. Legs too leaden to flee. And heart too numb to care, beyond a small, deep hope that maybe Kaiso would pull the trigger and end the nightmare.

Then Kaiso glanced behind him and looked back at Kuon one more time before slowly lowering his pistol and running away.

Still numb, Kuon saw a blonde woman running forward.

Then suddenly, the world rushed back into focus.

There was screaming. Tina was cradling Rick's body, trying futilely to stop the bleeding.

Then she turned and looked up at the catwalk, directly at Kuon. Her grief flashed and transformed into rage.

 _Murderer! You're a murderer!_

 **-x-**

* * *

 **NOTES:**

Ask and you shall receive! So many reviews stated that they missed Kyoko that I had to include this small little scene in the beginning. Sorry that we've gone so long without our main duo; this arc kind of ran away from me. But starting next week, we're back! And launching into the final arc of our story! Re-Vote day is drawing nearer, and Delta is going to learn something that will put the LME unit under heavy duress.

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG**

 **Shizuhoe** – I actually switched the cover-up idea halfway in writing. I was going to have the smuggling ring be a cover-up for North Korea actually hiding listening bugs and hidden cameras in their smuggled purses and wallets. If it's high end goods, then only the rich, powerful, and influential would end up carrying them. Just imagine the intel leaks! Haha, but then I realized I included a little tidbit with Tina surveying the people… and I was like. Shoot. Stuck. Aaaaand, *dingdingding* Kaiso was indeed Lory's partner! Good catch ;D As for minors being turned into assassins – yeah it's kind of unbelievable and outrageous – which is why Rick was so outraged at his half-brother, Marcus. In my AU, Marcus and Rick share the same father, but different mothers. They were originally on good terms growing up, but grew apart as the years went on, especially after Marcus started the juvenile assassin program. Thanks for being patient with the length of Kuon's backstory!

 **Knight Patissere** – Yay! Welcome back! Oh man… I hate when life gets in the way of fanfiction! Haha, just kidding. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! Thanks for commenting after catching up! And thanks for the encouragement! I think in the beginning, I was still trying to find my voice/shake off the rust (I hadn't written anything in over 5 years)/figure out how long I wanted the story to be, and thus what stuff to gloss over. But I'm really glad the way it's turned out! Thanks for coming back to my fic! :D

 **Guest** – Yeah I totally agree with you on the idea that the CIA's reputation is that they get their hands dirty, but all in the name of the "greater good". I'd like to think that Rick is different – he knows that he has to kill, but he tries his hardest to keep it to a minimum. That's his last lesson to Kuon, and that's why he's so disappointed when he found out Kuon had enrolled in the assassin's program.

 **Spindelhona** – Thanks for the alert and fave! And thank you so, so, so much for your words of encouragement! And thanks for your patience as well! I'm going to be going on a short trip to Asia soon, so I think I'll have some time on the long flights to write. I'd love to keep up the every other week pace, despite work. :) Really appreciate it and hope you keep reading!

 **Guineapigs1** – Yay! I love it when I hear that I can evoke emotion in my readers! And thanks for letting me know that you're missing our heroine! Your review was one of several that motivated me to write the blurb at the beginning. Kyoko still exists and is patiently waiting her turn…. Just so long as Ren puts a shirt on. Hahaha Thanks again!

 **MWEH** – DingDingDing! Correct! Kaiso's partner was indeed Lory! :D You can imagine now how Delta knows so much about the LME unit. Btw, have you been going through Skip Beat manga withdrawals? I certainly have! I've re-read the written spoilers like 5 times, so I know what's going on – but it's still different reading the actual scanlated chapter. Oh well, hope we have the official manga in English by the time we chat next, MWEH!

 **-x-**

 **PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A REVIEW, A FAVE, OR AN ALERT! ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT WRITER'S BLOCK! Lol (Smokey the Bear reference, anyone? No? Ok. I'll just show myself out. See y'all in 2 weeks!)**


	34. Chapter 34

Hello loyal readers!

This past week I've been on a family trip in Hong Kong visiting the in-laws. Yesterday (at least in my current time zone) was the Lunar New Year; the night before, we had this really fancy Chinese banquet-style meal. I've learned over the years of attending weddings at Chinese banquet halls that I can really only eat 20% of whatever dishes come out. (I really hate fish, shellfish, duck, and can only tolerate pork if desperate…) Therefore, I went prepared! Don't tell my in-laws, but I filled up on beef noodle soup and boba beforehand. Teehee. ^^ I'm definitely a low-maintenance kind of gal, at least in the food department. I'd prefer a burger and fries over abalone and bird's nest soup any day!

I'm going to be so happy once I get home. #hamburgers4lyfe

Today we have the emotional conclusion to Kuon's Past Arc, Ren comes to a terrible realization, and Kyoko struggles to let go. Also, as promised last week, Delta unearths something terrible…

Thank you all so much for the love last chapter! We're getting a lot of new regular readers, and it makes me so happy! (In other news, I know I should've been focused on this fic, buuuut I somehow wrote out half of that Star Wars AU Skip Beat fic that had been bouncing around in my head. Probably going to post it after this fic is done along with other one-shots that have been plaguing my thoughts haha.)

 **Don't forget to leave a fave, alert, or review! It really really does make a difference! Love y'all!**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH34**

– **PRESENT DAY –**

In the living room, Ren paused, continuing to stare at the blank area of rug at the foot of his armchair. Though he had moved from the bathroom earlier, now he didn't dare look up. Just ran through the rest of the nightmarish memories from beginning to end, hands gripped and knuckles white in his lap.

Now Kyoko knew the truth. He was a trained assassin. His hands – the hands that had touched her and held her – were also the hands of a _murderer_. A murderer who had murdered his own mentor and friend.

As the silence stretched on, Ren felt his heart sink further into his stomach. He imagined the horror and disgust that must be etched on her face. Even his own parents, after hearing of his taboo training and Rick's untimely end hadn't been able to wipe the brief glimpses of aversion from their eyes. They'd treated him differently – delicately – like a ticking time bomb afterward, even if they'd meant well. And combined with the crushing guilt... Kuon had spiraled downward into oblivion.

'Say something! Anything!' Ren pleaded Kyoko mentally, still not daring to even raise his head. 'Just reject me and get it over with!'

A small sound – a choked gasp – echoed through the room, and Ren winced back, expecting the worst.

"I'M SOOOO SORRRRRRYYYYYYY!"

Jerking his head up in surprise, Ren saw Kyoko curled up on the couch, staring at him with impossibly large, tear-filled eyes.

"Tsu-Tsuruga-san has had such a difficult past, a-a-and I so callously demanded that you expose your painful memories to me!" Kyoko hiccupped and tried unsuccessfully to rub the tears from her eyes as more welled to take their place. "I'm an ungrateful wench, I say! An ingrate!"

Forget attempting to comfort her, Ren could only stare at Kyoko – eyes wide, completely shocked.

"You… You don't hate me…?"

His words stopped Kyoko from performing what appeared to be an impromptu seppuku with a butter knife grabbed from the coffee table.

Kyoko hiccupped cutely, in stark contrast with Setsu's goth-punk outfit, and tipped her head to the side, her auburn hair following the movement. "W-Why would I hate Tsuruga-san? It was an accident, wasn't it? Wasn't Tsuruga-san also a victim?"

"What?"

A victim? People – his parents, Lory, Miss Woods – had told him the same, that he was just a victim, that he had only been doing his best in a terrible situation, that he was not to blame…

But that wasn't true. They didn't really mean it – their actions spoke volumes otherwise. He had been the one to pull the trigger. That was the reality.

Kyoko continued, unaware of her partner's mental denial. Putting a finger to her mouth and frowning in thought, she mumbled, "I mean, you didn't _want_ to be kidnapped…"

Ren sighed. Still no one understood. Rick had come to rescue _him_. _Kuon_ had been the one with the faith in his damnable training to use the gun. _He_ had pulled the trigger. To say that he had just been a victim… it felt too light of a punishment for the unforgivable sin he had committed.

He was Rick's murderer, and his punishment was to dedicate his life to hunting down the man who had led to Rick's murder. Kaiso… Delta… They shared responsibility, and if Ren gave up on revenge now, it felt as if he were implicitly absolving Kaiso of his part. Ren felt a stab of fear in his gut. He felt like a man trapped under a boulder; if he gave up on chasing Kaiso, if he gave up this goal that had motivated him for years, it would be like snapping the only other support holding the boulder up from crushing him completely.

It was a burden Ren knew that he could not bear alone. So he was going to get this bastard and make him pay his dues to Rick, just as Kuon had.

"Well…" Ren let out a heavy sigh, frowning down at his hands as if they belonged to a stranger. "There is more, but maybe that's enough for now."

"NO!" Kyoko flew forward, hands clasped to her chest, eyes wide and expectant. "Please continue!"

At her enthusiasm, Ren felt another part of his heart break. He loved this girl so much – this girl who accepted him freely and fearlessly – but he did not deserve her. He was on a collision course with death, and he wasn't going to selfishly drag her along. Finally, Ren had a moment of clarity.

The debate warring in his heart and soul for the past half year, the one he had been so desperate to ignore, had been settled just like that. Kyoko or Rick… He did not deserve happiness, but Kyoko did. For her sake, he had to choose Rick and revenge.

As he placed his hands on his knees to stand, Ren smiled sadly, his heart heavy in his chest. Beginning the process of shutting down his emotions, he reached forward and handed his partner a box of tissues from the coffee table.

"Continue? After that, there's not much to say…" Agent T shook his head as he stood and stretched his stiff shoulders. "I got into a lot of trouble afterward. Buried in guilt. Guilt and trying to find the man who… Well… Anyway, the President is a personal friend of my parents. He offered me a chance to start over here in Japan. And I jumped at the opportunity."

Kyoko wiped her tears and blew her nose with a cute honk. She blushed as she appeared to realize how unlady-like she seemed.

"Sorry…" she muttered, trying to appear more prim by folding her used tissue neatly.

A less-pained smile crossed Ren's face. "Please don't apologize, Mogami-san."

Silence stretched on as Kyoko's brow began furrowing again. "So… Your real name is Kuon?"

"Yes, it is."

"And you're American?"

"Well, my father is Japanese, and my mother is half-Russian, so…" Ren shrugged, free to use the Western gesture now without any more motive to hide it. "I guess I'm kind of a mix. But yes, I am from America."

"American…" Kyoko tilted her head to the side and squinted her eyes up at him. As emotionally frayed as he was at the moment, Ren had to clench his hand into a fist to prevent it from drifting up to caress her hair.

'Stop it. You don't have that right anymore. Just let her go.'

Then Kyoko asked suddenly, "Is black really your true hair color then? Do you dye it? And your eyes, are they really brown?"

 _"Coooorn!" Two children splashed in a magical stream._

Heart now in his throat, Ren's eyes widened, and he stepped back abruptly. Instinctively, he tried to hide it – their happy childhood memories – like a buried treasure he wanted to keep safe from the prying hands of the present darkness.

"A-As I said, that's probably enough for one night… We should head to bed for now." Emotions now in check, he flashed her what he thought was a bright, reassuring smile. But for some reason, Kyoko just looked at him with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.

 **-x-**

He was hiding something. He definitely was. Maybe several somethings. That 1,000,000-watt Gentleman's Smile was highly suspect.

Kyoko watched through narrowed eyes as Agent T meandered about the apartment, turning off stray lights. There were so many things that she wanted to ask, but most importantly, now that she knew the story behind his actions, what was she going to do about it? She couldn't just let him continue down this dark path. Just as he was reaching for the bowl over the listening bug in the living room, without thinking, she stepped forward and caught the edge of his sleeve.

"Tsuruga-san, please… Wait…" Catching herself, she dropped his shirt as if she might get burned. Her traitorous hand, instantly missing the residual warmth, clutched itself to her chest as if trying to preserve the sensation. Kyoko glanced away and stepped back, missing the pained look that crossed her partner's face as he misconstrued her actions. "So Delta is this Shizumino Kaiso guy?"

Ren's voice hardened, the bittersweet smile slipping from his face. "Yes."

"Now that you've found him…" She tried searching for the right words, but they eluded her. "What… are you planning to do?"

Ren was silent, his glance sliding off to the side. Kyoko's eyes widened in realization. "You're going to kill him."

The darkness and sheer hatred that passed over Ren's face at that moment chilled Kyoko to the bone. He hadn't verbally answered, but she didn't need any more confirmation of his intentions. That cold, angry stranger who had seemed to possess Agent T's body only hours before now seemed to skim the surface of his control.

Before she could think, the words burst from her mouth. "Is this really what Rick would have wanted?"

Her eyes followed his hand as it drifted down to brush against the brown leather watch on his wrist. Ren didn't respond, but his frown deepened, and Kyoko again had her answer.

Forget struggling against the darkness, it seemed as though her partner was hell-bent on diving headlong into his past of hatred.

"You have to stop." Kyoko wished that her tone had been firmer, but the fear and desperation had sapped her conviction. She could only stare up at him, eyes trying to find any remnant of the senpai she had grown to know and… respect.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Ren raised his eyes again and turned back to her. Like a condemned man resigned to his sentence, he sighed sorrowfully and left the bowl on the shelf, turning to her. His hand came up and hovered over her head as if he were about to stroke her hair, then it dropped to the side, limp. For some reason inexplicable to her, Kyoko felt deprived and cold.

"Mogami-san. I can't stop."

Then, as Ren turned to leave, her sense of disappointment morphed into panic, and on fear-driven instinct, Kyoko caught him by the hem of his shirt. Uncertain but determined, she gingerly held the smooth fabric between her fingers, willing herself not to let go this time. He stopped, his hand on the doorknob of the bedroom, but didn't turn around.

"Tsuruga-san… Please…" Kyoko couldn't raise her head, fearful of facing her senpai's rejection for the second time in one night. Her heart beat in her ears, thunderous in the quiet room.

There was silence. Kyoko could feel her cheeks heating up as she tried to ignore the warmth under the hem that beckoned her chilled fingers. But at the same time, her heart ached for him, seeing the path he soldiered down. "Can't you just… give this up?"

"What about you?" Ren finally spoke. Kyoko perked up, looking at her senpai questioningly as he turned slightly to face her. His handsome face was marred by a resigned frown. "Are _you_ going to just give up?"

Kyoko couldn't speak, her thoughts turning to Sho. As the silence stretched on, she realized that she was unable to answer Ren. Feeling as if a lifeline were slipping through her fingers, she let go of the hem of his shirt.

"Then we understand each other." His words were final. Kyoko watched as Ren turned and walked away to the bedroom, shutting the door gently behind him.

 **-x-**

Kyoko sat in the living room. It was three in the morning, but she didn't feel tired. She had tried lying in bed and willing herself to sleep – she had even attempted counting fairies – but after hours of tossing and turning, she had finally given up. Too many times to count, she had found herself gazing at the still, silent form of the man on the other bed.

Sleep eluded her. Her heart felt too heavy.

So she was out in the living room, curled under a blanket on the couch, turning the signal jammer over and over in her hands.

She had been trained for this. In the event an agent's partner was about to go rogue, the agent was to call in immediately. Another team would be sent under a different pretense to finish the mission.

Ren's obsession with this man – Shizumino Kaiso – the darkness and hatred Delta brought forth from Agent T's soul, was unnatural. And it was slowly poisoning Ren… He needed to be stopped.

' _What about you? Are_ you _going to just give up?_ '

Kyoko grit her teeth. She wasn't going to just let that idiot Sho off the hook. She had promised to ruin his life, just as he had ruined hers. Justice. She wanted justice, even if vengeance was the means. If she were to let everything go and forgive him – it felt too light of a punishment.

But… she was happy where she was now… And if it weren't for Sho, her life… What would her life look like right now?

If it weren't for Sho, she would have never met Kanae or Maria or the President or Chiori or Yashiro or… She would never have met Ren.

Kyoko looked at the cell phone in her lap and at the signal jammer in her hands. It was a secure line. One call and she could save Tsuruga-san from himself… and he would hate her forever.

At the mere thought, Kyoko felt an icy dagger pierce her heart. Just the thought of him loathing her made the back of her eyes prickle with tears. The mere idea felt as though the bottom had fallen out from under her world.

Ugh, _those_ feelings were making an appearance again. No, Ren was her…her _friend_ , and friends just didn't let friends go on near-suicide missions to kill somebody!

She had to do something. But what?

Taking a deep breath, Kyoko pressed the power button on the jammer and picked up her phone.

 **-x-**

– **7 days before the re-vote –**

Amano Junpei, famous investigative journalist, had yet again unearthed the biggest scoop of the century. He'd invested quite a bit of bribery money, but that tip to investigate the hottest candidate for this year's election, Mogami Saena, was really going to pay off.

After paying off the security guard who had let him into the file storage room, the short, balding man flicked his flashlight on, ignoring the light switch by the door. No use in alerting the other security guards that he was here. His pockets weren't _that_ deep.

Row upon row of metal filing cabinets greeted him. These cases were from before the records were computerized. Red tape and bureaucratic delay had prevented these files from being computerized and shredded – luckily for Amano Junpei.

Glancing at the labels on the fronts of the cabinets, the journalist shuffled his way down the alphabetically organized rows. Finding the appropriate filing cabinet and drawer, he opened it, careful not to make too much noise.

"Na… Ni… Niijima… Nishihori… Ah! I passed it!" He flipped quickly through the files inside, skimming the labels for the right name. "Nigawa… Nigawa… Here it is!"

Quickly grabbing the file, Amano slapped it open on top of the cabinet. He wiped a sweaty palm across his balding forehead. His flashlight bobbed as he quickly scanned through the folder's contents. Clearly finding it to his liking, a greedy grin slid across his features.

"Oh, hoho~!" The journalist chortled, snapping the file closed and rolling shut the drawer with a muffled metallic clang. "I'm going to be so famous!"

Amano kissed the file and spun around, ready to scurry out of the building with his treasure.

 _Thud_. Amano yelped. Lost in his glee, he had spun right into something behind him. The shaky illumination of his flashlight indicated that it was not a _something_ but a _someone_. Amano only caught a glimpse of a black flak jacket and a black mask covering the lower part of a face. However, as he raised the light toward the man's face, it clearly gleamed off a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. It was difficult, but Amano could swear that behind the mask, the mysterious man was smiling.

The journalist felt frozen in place. His gut instinct told him that this guy was more than trouble: he was dangerous.

"Oops… What do we have here?" Plucking the folder directly out of the journalist's hands, the masked man perused the file and spoke, his voice dripping in sarcastic astonishment. "Mmmmm, do tell… This would indeed be the scoop of the century—'Councillor Mogami Saena's Secret Past!' Who would have thought that she was actually part of the Japanese Witness Protection Program? The woman really doesn't know how to keep a low profile, does she?"

While the man was occupied with the file, Amano was trying to edge his way slowly out of the room. He froze when he heard the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked and felt the cold metal of a barrel pressing against the base of his skull.

"Now, now." The masked man sounded like a schoolteacher scolding an errant pupil. "I can't have you escaping and telling the whole world this fascinating piece of news, can I?"

"A-ha-ha-ha… I certainly – certainly, most definitely – will not tell a-anyone," Amano stuttered, feeling his legs go loose. A warm trickle ran down one pants leg. "This will just be our little secret."

"Hmmm…" The man hummed, clearly unsatisfied.

"J-Journalist's honor!" Amano laughed nervously, "I'll take this one with me to my grave. I swear!"

The gunman chuckled. It was a dark, joyless sound. "How convenient. I also agree that you will take this with you to your grave."

Amano almost had time to scream before the 0.40 caliber bullet ripped its way through the back of his skull, splattering his brains on the opposite wall. His lifeless body crumpled to the floor, foot twitching twice before stilling forever.

Delta sighed and nudged the body on the floor with one boot. "You really should vet your tips better, Amano-san. What a rookie mistake."

His eyes scanned down the folder. Pretty much everything on his dear Saena that he had expected Amano to find. That was the whole reason why Delta had tipped the journalist off in the first place. It was better to keep track of what mud the media was digging up on his chosen candidate than to be caught unawares.

It was pretty much everything Delta had expected… until he flipped the page.

"Hmmm… A birth certificate? Mogami… Kyoko?"

 **-x-**

* * *

 **JAPANESE NOTES:**

 **Nigawa** – This last name would be written with the characters for "two" and "river". Like Toudou's nickname for Saena's frown haha

 **Shizumino Kaiso** – Did you know that Japanese is a syllabic-based language? Each syllable "shi" "zu" "mi" and "no" are considered separate units. Consider this a little hint for those of you who actually read these notes. Can you solve the puzzle? (If you do solve it, don't spoil it for everyone in the review section. Just type your favorite breakfast food. We'll both know what it means. Heehee)

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG**

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – Awwww! I hope you got your ice cream and cat-petting! I'm secretly giggling because I evoked emotion in one of my readers, so don't hate me teehee. As a fellow author, you probably know how exhilarating it is to write something and the reader feels that the scene hit the emotional beat you intended. Soooo YES! Haha Thanks for reading and reviewing so faithfully Aikori!

 **Artloife** – Thanks for reading and reviewing – multiple times! I'm so thrilled that you're having a good time with the story! I've definitely done that where I meant to review at the end of a good fanfic chapter, but the story's pull is just too strong, and somehow I've found that I'm halfway through the next chapter before I'm like "Shoot. I missed my chance". Haha Thanks again! Hope to see you around the reviews section again.

 **Guest** – Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!

 **Ashenvale** – Yes… Yes he did *cries*

 **Guineapigs1** – Yeah, the WORST of it that I didn't even go into here, is that when snipers actually pull off a head-shot, the bullet doesn't make a small hole in the head. It essentially causes an explosion inside the skull. And the sniper is still LOOKING at the head. You can imagine the absolutely traumatic effect that'd have on Kuon. Glad you liked the little Kyoko and Ren reprieve – even though I re-read the past few chapters and realized that I had Ren turn the shower water off twice (facepalm). Bad continuity. LOL oops. Really glad you're enjoying the AU! I like AU's as well because after reading so much normal universe SB FF, it gets kind of repetitive. Haha

 **MWEH** – Heeheehee, all will be revealed in the next chapter. ;) But can you figure it out first? There was a pretty subtle hint this chapter! AND LOL, that would've been hilarious if Kyoko's issue had been her pressing need to go pee. Man. That really sounds like her. HAHA As for the manga, like… WTF ITS ALREADY THE NEXT MONTH! Ugh… I still haven't seen the officially scanlated version of the Jan chapter, have you? This is kind of like torture. I saw the ghetto video-manga grammatically incorrect English version on Youtube, but I'm not sure I understand the finer points of the chapter yet. I'm actually kind of worried that the producer is going to put Kyoko as Chidori and Kimiko as Momiji… (SPOILERS) There was some weird subtext going on that the scene with the next Chidori candidate doesn't have a spot for Momiji to act, yet the producer specifically asked Kyoko to participate in the next candidate's audition? Who knows… Ugh, it's torturous! Thanks as always MWEH!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Don't forget to leave a fave, alert, or review! It really really does make a difference! Love y'all! See you in two weeks!**


	35. Chapter 35

Hello loyal readers!

And you all must be very loyal for sticking with this story even though I went on an unplanned and unannounced month-long hiatus! Thank you all for coming back!

So, so sorry you guys. Work has been relentless, my motivation to write has been alarmingly low, and I've been spending a significant portion of my free time taking care of my NEW DOG! All the aforementioned have not made for a winning combination to write fanfiction. *cries*

I'm still dead-set on finishing this story, but I am probably going to take longer to get chapters out. So look forward to the next update maybe in April!

Today we have a rebellion, a revelation, and an epic car chase scene. After all – what spy story would be complete without a car chase? :D (Just remember that in Japan, the cars drive on the left side of the road, and the driver's side is on the right side of the car.)

Thank you all for being so patient!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH35**

– **5 days before the re-vote –**

"You want us to _what_?"

Ren, Lory thought, was unexpectedly not taking this well at all. Over Yashiro's shoulder, the President keyed the mic again, speaking through the secure audio channel.

"I said," Lory repeated sternly, "you and Agent M are being pulled out."

There was a moment of radio silence before Agent T came on the line again, "Why? Delta has agreed to meet us alone. The mission is going smoothly."

Stepping away from the mic, Lory kneaded his temples. He felt a migraine coming on. This stubborn kid…

Noting the President had no intention of continuing, Yashiro hesitantly replied, "A-Actually, there was a sudden turn of events back at HQ, and we need your assistance–"

"Don't lie to me, Yashiro-san." Ren's impolite retort was so contrary to his usual persona that Yashiro physically recoiled from the mic and eyed it warily, as if the object had suddenly grown teeth, jumped up, and bitten him.

Lory began pacing. Something had set Kuon off; _Tsuruga Ren_ never acted in such a manner. If so, it was even _more_ vital that the Heel siblings be pulled out as soon as possible.

"President, I believe this would be a grave error." Over the comm line, Ren continued. To Takarada's trained ear, the man was becoming more and more desperate – bargaining. "We finally have an opportunity to meet Delta on neutral territory–"

In the background of the comm channel, Lory heard Kyoko say something like, "T-san, please forgive my impertinence, but if you are staying, then I as well–!"

"ENOUGH!" Lory slammed his hand down on the desk. Leaning over the mic, the master spy growled, "The Heel siblings have a flight booked for the UK at 0115 tonight from Narita. You both will be on that flight."

"Pres–"

"That is an ORDER," Lory roared. "Do I make myself clear?"

The silence stretched on for an unnerving amount of time, but finally, Ren's voice came over the line with a terse, "Yes sir. Permission to disconnect to prepare for extraction."

"Granted." The President's eyes narrowed. He attempted one final warning. "Agent T…"

But Ren had cut the link.

Feeling the pounding return to his temples, President Takarada sat back heavily in the chair next to Yashiro's.

Beside him, the techie hesitated a moment, then hazarded, "President… If I may ask…"

Sighing, Lory attempted to massage his headache away again. "Go ahead and ask, Yashiro-san. Why didn't I just tell them about the break-in?"

Yashiro lapsed into silence, waiting for the answer.

Sinking down in the chair into an uncharacteristic slouch, Lory rested his head against the backing and stared blankly at the ceiling. "I don't know how much Mogami-kun knows about her past. About her mother's past. If she experiences a severe shock now and the Heel siblings were to face immense danger on their way to the extraction point, would she be able to perform optimally?"

"It would be better to tell her once she's back here," Yashiro mused in agreement. "However, for some reason, it seems as though Ren is the unstable one right now."

Lory couldn't respond. Maybe he was making the wrong choice; but Mogami-kun _needed_ to be pulled out. Lory had been dreading this day ever since he had discovered the truth behind his mysterious newbie's even more mysterious past. This morning when his contact at the Witness Protection Program had called him, Lory knew that regardless of what his superiors had ordered, he needed to do his best to avoid the worst possible outcome.

However, Ren…

"Yashiro-san."

"Yes, President Takarada?"

Lory straightened in his chair and frowned, thinking. "Have you by any chance heard anything from Mogami-kun about Ren's mental well-being?"

Beside him, Yashiro cocked his head to the side, genuinely puzzled.

"No, sir. Why?"

 **-x-**

The Heel siblings sat in stony silence as Cain's black sports car sped along the Tokyo highway. Cain could sense Setsu sneaking periodic glances at him from the passenger's seat.

Ren internally struggled not to try and convince her to stay behind. The farther they got from their Yokohama apartment, the more unlikely it was that he would be able to keep her safe. That was the whole reason why he wanted to push her away, to keep her out of harm's way. But Cain wouldn't have objected to his sister accompanying him. Which is how Kyoko had forced her way into the car in the first place.

In the apartment under the anti-listening bug protection of the signal jammer, Agent T had made it very clear to M-san that she was to stay behind. Though he did not do it often, he had made it an order from a senior agent to a junior. He had to protect her – no matter how much she protested.

However, as soon as he had settled into his car, Setsu had opened the passenger's door and slid into her seat. She had shot him a raised brow as if asking, 'What are you going to do about it?' with characteristic Setsu-like defiance.

Cain would never have thrown his sister out or insisted she stay behind. Any ensuing verbal fight would have been highly suspicious to any of Delta's listening ears in the unsecured space of the Heels' car. And Ren needed to catch the man as much as possible with his guard down. So no matter how uneasy Ren felt, Kyoko had stayed.

But Ren was putting his foot down once they got to the specified location. It was unsecured and Delta had not specified whether he was bringing back up or not. It would be a miracle if they could catch the mastermind alone. And since this could be Ren's last chance to kill Delta, who knew how dangerous it was going to get.

They had passed the freeway exits for Narita Airport long ago, instead heading farther east for the seaside city of Chiba. Delta had an assignment to give them. The meeting place and time had been communicated to them via Konoe days ago: the underground parking lot of the Chiba Sports Stadium at midnight.

After what seemed like an eternity driving in tense silence, Ren turned off the freeway, the coliseum-like stadium looming in the background. There wasn't a football match tonight and the stadium stood empty, like a sleeping behemoth. Unsurprisingly, Ren found the gated entrance to the parking lot open without a security guard.

Decelerating to a stop at the entrance to the underground parking structure, he hit a button on his phone, angling the device downward. Ren's heart beat steadily faster in rising anticipation as the tech in the phone scanned for thermal heat signatures. Aside from a scattering of rats and bird nests, there was a lone heat marker on the very bottom floor of the garage. Fortuitously and against all odds, Delta had apparently come alone. Ren could hardly believe his luck.

Agent T revved his engine before beginning to snake down the levels to the bottom floor. The reverberations of his car seemed both ghostly and deafening in the empty concrete expanses of the parking garage. Finally after traveling down five empty floors, he reached the bottom.

A solitary man in a tan trench coat stood in the very center of the lot.

Ren felt his heart leap into his throat with some raw mixture of anticipation, nerves, and relief. It was finally time. How many years had he been awaiting this moment?

Agent T parked several car-lengths away, turning the engine off with a final flick of his wrist. He sat for several moments, his hand on the keys, his heart hammering in his chest.

Beside him, he saw a small hand slowly inch over to his side of the car. It hesitated before gently settling on the white-knuckled grip he had on the steering wheel, like a butterfly alighting on an uncertain perch.

How he longed to take her hand. But he was resolved.

Ren's gaze reluctantly turned to Kyoko's face. As he suspected, beyond the light flush on her cheeks, her expression spoke of immense pain and worry. It stabbed at his heart. But he had to push her away, lest he drag her even deeper down the rabbit hole with him.

"Setsu." Ren turned back forward and yanked the keys from the ignition. "Stay with the car."

"Cain–!" Her response was high and panicky.

But Ren's only answer was to firmly hand his partner the car keys. Willing the depths of his heart to show on his face, he begged her with his eyes.

Stay. Safe. If it gets dangerous, leave. Forget me. Save yourself.

It seemed as though she searched his face for an eternity. Then something in Kyoko's desperate expression relented. She silently took the keys. If Ren were feeling particularly arrogant at that moment, he would have sworn that her hands hesitated a moment too long as her fingertips brushed his palm, as if she were trying to remember his warmth.

 _Leave her to save her_ – he repeated like a broken mantra in his head.

With forced abruptness, he pulled himself away, opened the door, and was outside, shutting her in. Through the glass, his eyes rested on her, subconsciously trying to memorize each curve of her beautiful face. Then he tore his gaze away and lifted his eyes to set upon the man before him.

Delta… Shizumino Kaiso. The man who had driven Kuon and Rick both to ruin.

It was finally time.

Remembering to adopt the looming intimidation of Cain Heel, Ren started forward, his black trench coat billowing behind him. He strode indifferently across the pavement as if his destiny did not lie before him, as if he had not been dreaming of this very moment for years and years.

Calculating in his mind, Ren wished for not the first time that night that he'd had more time to prepare for this encounter. More weapons. More time to secure the area. More time to ensure no one was waiting to strike behind the thick concrete pillars that supported the ceiling of the parking garage. Well, he supposed his pistol and the heat scan would have to do.

And suddenly Ren was there.

"Welcome, Chi." Delta's smooth tenor echoed slightly in the empty garage.

Trying to tamp down the thunderous hammering of his heart, Ren stopped a meter away, leveling a Cain-esque glare at the mastermind. It was best to keep the act up until he could incapacitate the man.

"Sigma won't be joining us?" Delta's tone seemed innocent enough, but Ren felt an uncomfortable knot worm its way into his stomach.

'It's ok. A few more minutes and this bastard will be breathing his last,' Ren thought to himself as he fought to quash his panic.

Cain chose not to respond, merely narrowing his eyes at the mastermind. Delta seemed amused instead of intimidated and merely gave a small chuckle instead.

"Well then…I have a target for you, Chi." Delta continued, his eyes hidden in the harsh reflection off his glasses. "I know that you're being called home to England, but I'd appreciate it if you could extend your stay in Japan one last time."

Alarm bells went off in Ren's mind. How the hell did Delta know the Heel siblings were planning to leave Tokyo?

It was all Ren could do to wipe the surprise off his face before Delta went on.

"This assignment is a very delicate one that only you can accomplish, after all," Delta remarked and produced a small photograph, offering it face down.

To cover his surprise at the mastermind's intel, Ren reached forward impatiently. This was all just a formality anyway. After this meeting, when this man was dead, there would be no need to play along with Delta's games. Ren took the photo and flipped it over, only giving it half a glance.

Then he looked again. As his eyes confirmed what they had seen at first, his heart dropped instantly to the bottom of his stomach.

Her hair was lighter and shorter now, but the smile in the school portrait was the same.

He swallowed hard. He couldn't let this show on his face or in his voice.

Desperately pulling on every scrap and ounce of acting experience in his repertoire, Ren assumed a bored affect and asked, "Who is she?"

Delta clasped his hands behind his back and turned his back to Ren. "She's Fuwa Shotaro's childhood friend…"

The lid to his panic box now flown wide open, Ren hand drifted toward the gun hidden in the waistband of his pants. He had to end this NOW before Delta learned the truth about the girl sitting in the car only meters away.

"She's also Mogami Saena's hidden daughter…"

Ren fingers wrapped around the stock of his gun.

"And mine…"

What?

Delta whirled, and in the millisecond Agent T had to react, he spotted the gun in the mastermind's hands and dodged. Delta's shot missed. Leaping to the side to roll across the floor, Ren drew his gun and by the time he had sprung to his feet, it was clasped in his hand, cocked, and ready to blow straight through Delta's heart.

Both men stood facing each other, weapons drawn. Ren was breathing heavily, but Delta looked completely at ease.

The mastermind treated the LME agent to a warm smile, as if greeting an old friend – drawn weapons notwithstanding. "So we meet again, Kuon-kun."

"Kaiso…" Ren grit his teeth, hand shaking with the self-control it took not to pull the trigger. The bastard had known all along who he was!

"I haven't heard that name in a long, long time." Delta's expression shifted into a small, wistful smile, as if remembering good times long past. "I've gone by so many that sometimes it's hard to remember them all."

Ren's voice trembled in rage as he spoke. "You're going to pay for what you did to Rick."

Delta's eyes widened in mock-innocence. "Me? I never actually harmed Rick. Despite his unfortunate and untimely end."

Ren nearly snarled at the implication. His finger strained, longing to pull the trigger. But not until he'd heard – "Why? Why did you betray us?"

At this accusation, the middle-aged man's eyes finally narrowed, his grip on his own pistol tightening. "Your anger is misplaced. Does a soldier curse the gun who shot him or the enemy? But I will strike down the enemy."

"Bullshit. You _are_ the enemy," Ren snapped. "It doesn't matter. I'll be the one striking _you_ down tonight."

Moment of seriousness gone, a smirk tugged at the corners of Kaiso's mouth. The mastermind slowly lowered his weapon.

"Apologies, but as you say in America, I will have to take a rain check." With a nod of his head, Delta glanced behind Ren. "I have something I need to take care of first."

"No! Let me go!"

Ren's world froze. Kyoko.

Whirling, Ren saw the door to his sports car had been thrown open. Kyoko had been pulled from inside and was struggling against two men garbed in black stealth gear.

"M-san!"

"Haven't you getting a bit careless over the years, Kuon-kun? Turning your back on the enemy?"

Acting on pure instinct, Ren leapt forward and rolled to the side, just as shots rang out, echoing loudly in the confined concrete space. Whipping back around, Agent T saw that two more enemy agents carrying semi-automatic weapons had emerged from hiding spots behind the parking lot's square concrete pillars, flanking Delta.

Where had they come from? Delta had been alone! – Ren's mid raced as he sought cover.

Then Ren saw it – the mercenaries' gear shimmered slightly in the light. It must have been some kind of material that had trapped their body heat and hid their thermal signatures from his earlier scan.

Gritting his teeth, the LME agent dashed behind another square pillar, his back pressed up flush against it. Gunfire burst through the garage, and Kuon ducked as chips of cement went flying off of his pillar.

Between bursts of gunfire, he peeked around the corner of his hiding spot, his eyes wildly searching for his partner. One of Kyoko's attackers lay prone on the floor – apparently knocked out by Agent M. However, Ren's eyes widened as he saw the other man – who had been knocked back by some kick or punch of hers, his silver mirrored sunglasses askew on his face – rise and viciously strike her in the back of the head with the butt of his gun.

Her eyes had been turning to find her partner. The moment of impact, Ren saw the fear and panic flash through her eyes. Her lips moved to mouth something.

Then she crumpled to the floor. The black-garbed attacker fixed his sunglasses and reached to pick her up. Behind them, several black, unmarked SUVs roared down the ramp to their floor and screeched to a halt.

"NO!"

The gunfire began again. Ren whipped back around to avoid getting hit.

Cursing, Ren quickly peeked around the column again. The two gunman were slowly stalking toward him from opposite sides, firing continuously to keep him pinned down.

Quickly, Agent T shucked Cain's long black coat from his body, gathered it into a ball, and threw it as far to the side as he could. Acting on instinct, the assailant closest to the coat turned from firing on the pillar to firing at the moving object.

Using the distraction, Ren dashed from behind the cover of the pillar and, like a phantom, seemed nearly to appear next to the diverted attacker. With a nasty uppercut, Ren disoriented his enemy further, then finished him off with a pistol-whip to the face. The man's facial bones cracked in agony as he crumpled, hardly knowing what had hit him.

The other gunman had turned toward Agent T, semi-automatic raised. Thinking quickly, Ren caught the fallen enemy by the chest straps of his bulletproof Kevlar vest and hoisted him up. The hail of bullets impacted the body armor, but Ren still winced as he felt one or two slip past his impromptu guard, the slugs stinging as they grazed across his arms.

With a shout, Ren heaved the body at the gunman. Distracted by the 90-kilogram projectile, the attacker didn't see Agent T's pistol coming up. Two shots was all it took to incapacitate the second gunman in the shoulder and knee.

Ignoring the man's agonizing wails, Ren turned back to the SUVs. He immediately spotted Kyoko's limp form being carried into one of the cars. Her attacker, the man in the silver sunglasses, loaded his cargo into the back and hopped into the driver's seat.

Finally, the long tan coat billowing behind him as he entered the SUV after Kyoko, Delta turned and caught Ren's eye. Over the din of more approaching gunman, Ren saw the mastermind mouth something.

" _Until next time, Kuon-kun."_

The car door slammed shut and the driver gunned the engine. The SUV leapt forward, and two other identical black SUVs roared up the parking garage ramp after it.

Ren immediately sprinted for his sports car. The chatter of gunfire nipped at his heels as he rolled across the hood of his car and swung open the driver's door.

Slamming the door behind him, Ren reached into his pocket to find – no keys. He had given them to Kyoko. Cursing, Ren ducked as a spray of bullets sent spiderwebs shattering across his windshield. The bulletproof coating on his vehicle wouldn't last long against the hail of heavy gunfire.

That was when he noticed the car was purring in idle.

Kyoko had had the keys in the ignition, car ready to go at a moment's notice when she'd been wrenched from within.

"Agent M," Ren grinned. He wasted no time, slouching in his seat to minimize his body's target, and mashed on the pedals, throwing the car into reverse. Tires squealed in protest as he didn't even bother flipping the car around, just gunned the car backward toward his attackers. The gunmen, the tables now turned, dropped their weapons and fled, scattering like so many bowling pins.

With a final squeal, Ren's car spun around toward the exit, and he floored the gas. Gritting his teeth, Ren peeled up the ramp, drifting through the sharp turns up the parking garage floors to save time.

Unfortunately with the time it took him to get to his car, the trio of SUVs had already made it to the top of the parking garage and were passing the security booth entrance. Ren shifted his car's gears and roared up the final stretch of the ramp after them.

That was when orange lights started flashing in the tunnel and a warning Klaxon began to blare. Ren's keen eyes noted that between the security booths, thick metal barrier pipes were starting to rise from the floor. Someone on Delta's team had activated the stadium's parking security.

If he were to hit those going full speed while the pipes were fully extended, Ren knew that his car would not withstand the collision. _He_ might not withstand the collision. But if Delta got away with Kyoko…

That wasn't even an option. Ren shifted gears again and mashed the accelerator into the floor.

As he neared the exit, the pipes continued to rise, climbing centimeter by centimeter. Would he make it in time?

With a grinding crash of metal and a shower of sparks, Ren's sports car bounced over the rising pipes, tearing through some. He heard the unearthly metallic shriek as they tore at the underbelly of his car. Then he was through.

His car fishtailed for a second before he swerved and caught ahold of it again. Then it was straight through to the stadium's exit, chasing the pack of SUVs.

Cursing, Ren knew what he had to do – he needed help, even if it meant facing the President's wrath later. Kyoko's safety was the most important thing. Digging into a secret compartment in his car's glove box, he finally produced a spare comm link.

Screwing the unit into his ear, Ren barked, "Yashiro! Hey! Yukihito!"

Through the earpiece came a garbled, "Ren? What's happening? Are you on your way to the airport–?"

"No time," Ren snapped as he swerved around a trucker to follow the SUVs onto the freeway's onramp. "I need sat-tracking on three vehicles as well as a lock-on Agent M's homing beacon."

"Y-Yeah, sure." Over the earpiece, Ren could hear his tech support's fingers flying over his keyboard. "Wait. What are you doing in Chiba?"

"Not the time, Yashiro!" Agent T growled as he weaved through traffic. Luckily even without tech aid, the SUVs weren't hard to follow. They left a path of crashed civilian cars in their wake.

Through the earpiece, Yashiro gave a low whistle. "The two SUVs ahead of you on your 10 o'clock? Locked on."

"There's not two, there's three," Ren said through gritted teeth as he slowly gained on the two black SUVs ahead of him. However in the driver's side mirror of the front-most car, he caught sight of a pair of mirrored, silver sunglasses. "Never mind! This is fine. Keep locked."

"I'll keep looking for the third," Yashiro replied, his voice tight with worry. "Ren. I can't find Agent M's beacon. Where's Kyoko-chan?"

"Right in front of me," the agent growled out, determined. Shifting gears again, he pulled ahead to tackle the rear SUV.

The driver of the second SUV did a double-take at the black sports car creeping up to his left side. Ren was still figuring out his next move when his car trembled and veered off to the left. The other driver had tried to run him off the road.

With a yell, Ren put both hands on the wheel and yanked the opposite direction, throwing off the SUV's weight and righting his car. While Agent T was distracted, the SUV's driver had braked, pulling back to swerve behind him. Ren barely had time to gain bearings on his situation before he was rammed again, this time from behind.

Trying to think despite the constant jarring motion of his car getting pummeled by the bigger SUV, Ren noticed that he was quickly running out of space. Just ahead of him in the lane was a towering semi truck going much slower than the oncoming traffic.

Ren grinned. Perfect.

Shifting down a gear, Ren allowed the other SUV to continue to ride his tail, occasionally allowing the driver to bump him. Counting under his breath which watching in the rear-view mirror for the other car's movements, suddenly, he shifted up a gear again and punched it to gain some space. Then, yanking on the wheel while he simultaneously shifted into park, Ren drifted and spun out from in front of the SUV. The driver of the SUV, too focused on trying to ram the sports car and now too late to pull back from his sudden acceleration, didn't see the semi truck in front of him before he collided, his vehicle crumpling like a tin can.

Drifting for another moment to get his bearings, Ren again shifted and rammed the accelerator to the floor, shooting forward past the wreckage.

"Yikes," Yashiro commented from over the comm link, probably watching the car chase from the freeway's security camera live feed. "And Ren, I think I have the final SUV's location. Do you need it?"

Catching another glimpse of the silver sunglasses on the remaining SUV's driver, Ren mashed down on the accelerator again. "Keep following. I think I have the one I'm looking for right here."

"If you're sure."

Ren was sure. He was sure that if it weren't for the fact that Kyoko was in that car, he would run the dammed car along with Kaiso off the road. This was the second time he had unintentionally spared the man's life, and both times had been a devastating mistake. The next time he saw Kaiso, Ren decided as he bared his teeth, he was going to shoot the man between the eyes.

But was Delta really Kyoko's father? A small voice niggled in the back of his mind: if Ren was going to kill the man, what would Kyoko think about that? She already hadn't approved the idea of Ren killing him, and that was before she had known that Delta was her missing father. Also, hadn't Ren's single-minded devotion to avenging Rick been the thing that had dragged Kyoko into danger in the first place?

Agent T shook his head. He didn't have time to think about this now. First things first – rescue Kyoko.

He had finally caught up to the other SUV. Pulling up parallel to the left-hand passenger's side, Ren unbuckled his belt and rolled down his window, ready to ditch his own vehicle and leap for the SUV. However the driver spotted him first.

Bullets and sparks sprayed down around his head, and Ren instinctively ducked, swerving away. Regaining control of his car, Ren brushed broken hexagonal bits of tempered windshield glass off his shirt and revved the engine, trying to pull forward to attempt a second boarding.

Accelerating while weaving around the occasional car still not evacuated from the freeway, Ren pulled up his car parallel to the passenger's side. From his peripherals, he saw the wall of the freeway abruptly end to his left, turning into a low guardrail over an approaching off-ramp.

"Ren!" Over his comm link, Yashiro's frantic voice cut through Ren's thoughts. "The third SUV! It's–!"

Ren had only a split second's warning. Tuning out Yashiro's voice, he saw the light glint wickedly off mirrored glasses as Delta's driver swerved his vehicle to the left, intent on running Agent T off the road entirely.

On pure instinct, Ren slammed on the brakes. Overconfident, the other driver couldn't correct his trajectory in time, and Ren watched in stunned horror as the SUV swerved across the lane in front of him. The heavy car tore through the guardrail like it was tissue paper before it launched itself into the vast empty space above the off-ramp. The SUV listed to the side before hitting the off-ramp, its momentum too great to stop as it tumbled over and over and over, until it broke through the off-ramp's guardrail and flipped end over end down the grassy embankment below. Finally, the crumpled, smoking wreckage came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, sliding to a screeching halt.

As horror filled his breast, Ren's only thought was – "KYOKO!"

Slamming on his brakes, Ren swerved to the shoulder of the freeway. He leapt from his battered sports car and scrambled down the hill.

"KYOKO!" Identity protocol discarded, all Ren could see in his mind's eye was the SUV flipping end over end as it tumbled down the embankment. The car was still. No one stirred within. "KYOKO!"

Silver mirrored sunglasses cracked and askew, the driver lay still in his seat, hanging limply from his seatbelt in the front. There was no movement from within the car.

Ren sprinted for the back of the car. The rear door was bent on its hinges and resisted. Between tugs, Ren tried to look into the back, beyond a small triangle in the mangled metal. The interior of the car was dark and silent.

Finally, Ren wrenched the door open.

"Kyoko!"

But the back was empty.

"S-She's not here?" Bewildered, Ren spun around, already sprinting for his own car. "Yashiro! I need that last SUV!"

"I-I'm sorry, Ren."

As the sound of frantic keyboard strokes filled the silence, Ren's heart sank. His breath, already short from the adrenaline, began to come in tight, panicky gulps.

"I lost him," Yashiro reported miserably. "Something was interfering with my satellite's feed. Agent M's homing beacon is also still not broadcasting."

Turning around, oblivious to the sirens wailing through the frigid night, Ren gazed in disbelieving horror at the SUV's empty back seat. Kyoko was gone.

As Ren sank to the asphalt of the road, crushed by the impossibly heavy weight of despair, Delta's mouthed words of parting seemed to mock him.

" _Until next time, Kuon-kun."_

 **-x-**

* * *

 **NOTES:**

 **Narita** – the international airport closest to Tokyo

 **Shizumino Kaiso** – Who guessed it based on my hint in last chapter's notes? shi-zu-mi-no-ka-i-so is rearranged into Misonoi Kazushi. Gimme a shout out in the reviews if you figured it out! I might have told a teeny tiny lie in one of my author's notes about Kaiso being an OC. Heehee… #sorrynotsorry Love y'all!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **MAILBAG** : In this section, I respond to the 5+ most interesting reviews in no particular order!

 **brennakai** – Exactly! I feel like the greatest part of Kyoko's character arc in the manga is her acceptance of all the bad things that have happened to her in the past, and her realization that they have built her into the person that she is so proud of in the present day. Revenge is all about stewing over the past; forgiveness is about moving beyond it. And I guess Delta did figure out who Kyoko's father is. ;) Did you? Hehe Thanks for faithfully reviewing, brennakai!

 **artloife** – Thaaaanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it! Trying to balance keeping their relationship dynamic canon while adding a couple other themes to the mix. And indeed, the baddies did get a leg up… And then they got an even BIGGER leg up this time! What is in store for our dynamic duo? Only time will tell… Heheh Thanks artloife!

 **Guineapigs1** – Did you get it right about Kaiso's name?! :D I also can't wait for these two to figure out they don't need revenge and only need each other (rolls eyes at her own story) lol. Thanks Guineapigs1! Always great hearing from you!

 **Tabbykatroses** – Welcome! We enjoy all-comers, late or early! :) Thanks for leaving a review and for the encouragement! Hehehe just wait till the drama builds morrrre!

 **Guest** – Yay! Thanks so much for taking the time out to review multiple chapters! Leave a name next time so I can give you a specific shout-out!

 **Shizuhoe** – LOL! It's so funny how many people thought that Kyoko was interrupting the story because she needed to take a leak. But that's so… _her_ as well haha. And yup, I changed things a bit to ramp up the drama and make Ren's desire for revenge more complex. Kuon actually was the one to pull the trigger and kill Rick in this fic. Also, surprise! Kaiso is Delta is Kyoko's dad! Were you right? Did you solve the puzzle from last chapter's notes? And fufufu… Did Kyoko call to report Ren going rogue? Yashiro and Lory didn't seem to know about it. ;) Thanks as always for reviewing, Shizuhoe!

 **MWEH** – Hey! Didn't see you around the review section last chapter, but I have a confession to make to you: I might have told a teeny, tiny, eensy, weensy lie about Kaiso being an OC to throw everyone off the scent of Delta's identity. ;) Kudos to you though! You called me out on every hint and were basically on my tail this entire fic on the true identity of Delta! Bravo! Also, thoughts on the most recent SB chapter? I've seen the raws and freaking Sensei has left us on a terrible cliffhanger. ARGH! April, come faster!

 **-x-**

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 **Don't forget to leave a review, a fave, or an alert! Just a few kind words really do raise my spirits and motivate me to write more! :) See you guys in a month or less!**


	36. Chapter 36

Hello Loyal Readers!

Thank you again for giving me this month to produce a chapter! This has been a difficult one to navigate, because I'm trying to figure out what themes and motifs I want to focus on and what message I want to convey with my story.

Here it is! I may re-post this chapter because I feel like I still haven't ironed ALL the kinks out… Oh! And just be warned, this first section focuses on Sho in a stressful situation, so be aware that he curses a LOT. *points to the T rating*

Extra long chapter this month for your patience! Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

 **-x-**

 **CH36**

 **-3 days before the re-vote-**

Sho just wanted to go for a walk. Just a walk. Not a big deal. But there was a little problem… Given that he'd almost been assassinated a week and a half ago, now for his own protection, he was prohibited from going outside. In fact, he'd been stuck in a non-Fuwa-owned hotel room with his LME guards and Shoko for the past week.

Watch TV, they had told him. Sure, that had gotten him through the first few days of confinement. After all, he was now free to watch those gag shows without fearing his father's disapproval – there was nothing holding him back anymore. However 72 straight hours of binge-watching later, Sho had grown tired of it.

Play your guitar, they had said, you insisted on bringing it after all. Well, after a few hours of trying to compose songs, Sho had almost thrown his guitar down in disgust. Amber eyes and lingering regrets snuck their way into each and every verse. Sho didn't want to think about it – think about her, think about his mistakes.

Walk inside the room, they'd retorted, now half-sarcastic and exasperated at his cabin fever. The room at least was spacious enough for pacing. With four people stuck inside, at least the LME unit had decided to shell out for the presidential suite. An opulent and immense cage.

Eventually, after an hour of wearing down a strip of carpet from one end of the living room to the other, Shoko had snapped at him to cut it out. Her nerves had been frayed since learning of the failed assassination attempt in Yokohama, and the prolonged stay in the Tokyo hotel wasn't making things any better.

Actually, to make matters worse, two days ago, the LME agents had decided to stick Mimori in the same room as him and Shoko. The walls felt like they were closing in at every moment. He. Wanted. Out.

Thus, Sho found himself on one end of the couch, half-heartedly flipping through TV channels and trying to scheme some machination to keep the incessantly clingy Mimori on the other end of the sofa, far away from him. His best idea so far was begging the LME agents to switch him to his parents' room down the hall. But… was bearing with his father worse than enduring Mimori? …It was a toss up.

'Something,' Sho begged the universe as he flipped past the same cheesy direct-to-video rom-com for the ninth time. 'Please let _something_ interesting happen!'

And that was when his phone rang.

From across the living room, Kijima instantly shot the heir a dirty look. "Hey, Fuwa. I thought I told you to shut that thing off–."

"Yeah, yeah," Sho huffed in annoyance, reaching for the Ignore Call button. "They can track us through the call… Blah blah blah…" Sho finished in a mutter under his breath.

However, just as he was about to tap the button, a text message notification blipped onto his screen. Normally Sho would've just ignored it – but the words jumped out at him.

" _You shouldn't ignore this call_."

Sho frowned down at his device, puzzled. Both the text and the call were from unknown numbers.

"Huh?"

Another text popped up. " _Kyoko might regret it if you do_."

The hotel heir instantly felt his blood run cold. He tapped the message to open the chat thread just as the next message came through. This time instead of threatening words, there was a picture.

Bathed in the eerie glow of a single naked overhead bulb in the center of the dingy concrete room was Kyoko. Her head drooped forward in the awkward laxity of forced unconsciousness. From some distant part of his mind, Sho saw the rough rope that cut into her arms, binding her to the metal chair. Kyoko was wearing bizarre rocker-style clothing and a long blonde wig, but he knew it was her.

"Fuwa-san?" Momose peeked over his shoulder, wondering what was taking him so long to shut his phone off. Her hand instantly flew to her mouth. Her voice escaped, a small and terrified gasp. "No… Kyoko-san?"

Shoko, Mimori, and Kijima scrabbled to their feet to see what was wrong, but Sho just shot the three an infuriated look before answering the phone. What the hell was that Tsuruga-bastard doing! Had he just let Kyoko get snatched under his nose?

"WHO the FUCK?" Sho growled into the handheld. "This had better be some sick joke, you fucking bastard!"

A voice on the other end, smooth as butter and deadly as a viper, chuckled darkly. "Hello Shotaro-kun. I take it you received my message."

"Yeah," the blonde snapped, impatient. "I asked you who the HELL you think you are?"

"Your LME companions must be withholding information from you, my dear Shotaro-kun," the man on the line sounded appalled – a clear mockery. Still Sho shot a dirty look at Kijima and Momose who were now tapping in via their comm links. They at least had the self-respect to look embarrassed. The man on the phone continued. "I'm a threat of whom they have been well-aware for quite some time now. You may call me Delta."

Delta? Shaking his head slightly, Sho snapped back, "Whatever. Is that Kyoko? You better fucking let her go!"

"Oh, I can release her to you," Delta mused. "But it all depends on your actions from here on out, Shotaro-kun. You could save her or you could damn her to a terrible fate."

"What the hell–?"

"I hear that death by immolation is the absolute worst way to go," the voice continued, nonchalant as if discussing the best way to marinate a steak. "But I'd have to imagine that burning appendage by appendage would be far, far worse…"

Sho grit his teeth, only partially successful in banishing the mental image of Kyoko screaming and weeping in terror as flames engulfed her. He was barely restraining himself from cussing this Delta asshole out. Shoko caught his eye, and she shook her head at him gravely. Sho bit his tongue. "What do you want?"

"Something that only you and your father can give me."

"Cut the shit," Sho spat out, frustrated at this cloak-and-dagger act. "Just tell me what you want me to do."

"Do you have a pen?"

Sho's eyes flit to Momose, who brandished a pen studiously in her hand over one of the hotel's notepads. She gave him a curt nod.

Sho turned back to the call. "I can remember it."

"Hmmm. Alright then," the voice mused. "I want you to go down the hall to have a little chat with your father."

Shit, Sho thought, this bastard knew his father was here too. In the background, Kijima began making an urgent call to the police force guarding Fuwa Daisuke and Yayoi.

"I want you to tell your father to call in his favor with Representative Takemura," the voice continued indifferently, as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb of a revelation. "Daisuke-san will have Takemura and all his little minions vote for Mogami Saena of the New Change Party. Your father will also tell him to stop being a stubborn imbecile. Those words in particular, please."

Sho grit his teeth again. Was this Delta character trying to get Kyoko's mom elected? The reappearance of Mogami Saena had been earth-shattering enough – when Sho had seen her campaign ad on TV, he'd dropped and broken a china bowl full of cereal – but to think that she was being supported by this power-hungry, kidnapping ass… Did Saena know that her own daughter had been kidnapped? Had Saena arranged it?

The wheels in Sho's head began turning more rapidly. Takemura was that idiot politician on the news refusing to step down even though his son had been caught wrapped up in all sorts of shady shit. In retrospect, Sho could remember his father mentioning a Takemura every once in a while. Was this Delta guy trying to fix the election? Was he behind the Mimori-kidnappings, the assassination attempts, and the run-in with that crazy psycho Kimiko? Was _Takemura_ Delta's aim all along?

"And tell him that if he doesn't follow through," Delta continued, oblivious to Sho's whirlwind of thought, "then _you_ will immediately run out of the room and into the relative unsafety of the street outside your hotel. Who knows what kind of unsavory characters are wandering around outside. Daisuke-san wouldn't want to risk his precious heir… Just as you wouldn't want to risk your precious childhood friend."

Sho knew he wouldn't actually run out to be killed, but he couldn't tell his father about Kyoko. Though his mother cared for her son's childhood playmate, his father couldn't care less. The only leverage against Fuwa Daisuke was against his business, and putting his only heir in danger of assassination again was certainly leverage enough.

Shit. They were all cornered. This asshole had found what made each of them tick and had dissected them piece by piece.

"If I do that, then you'll let Kyoko go?" Sho tried to keep his voice flat, but to his disgust couldn't help the tinge of pleading that crept in at the end.

"Absolutely," the Delta-asshole responded, mock-appalled at the implication that he would go back on a deal. "However, I am going to have to keep her as collateral for the next three days."

Three days was the re-election day, right? Sho narrowed his eyes. This really was all about getting Mogami Saena elected. Kyoko was just trapped in the middle – and that Tsuruga-bastard had done nothing to protect her.

"Fine," the Fuwa heir snapped, trying to regain a modicum of control over his emotions. He paused for a second before blurting out, "But your people send me videos of her every four hours so I know you haven't hurt her. If anything happens to her, I guarantee that you'll never get those votes."

Delta laughed. He somehow made it sound derisive and flat at the same time. "A shrewd bargain. But a small thing to arrange. I'll know when your father makes that call, so be a dear and hurry up, Shotaro-kun. Kyoko is waiting after all."

There was a click as Delta hung up. Sho just numbly stared at his phone. For all his bluster and pride, Sho was not an idiot. He understood the stakes here. He was about to trade the fate of his nation for the life of one girl.

Kyoko would've punched him.

"Sho?" Shoko laid a hesitant hand on his shoulder.

Sho stared at the picture on his screen. The ropes seemed to cut into her skin and the open bulb cast a sickly pallor on her face. For whatever reason, that Bastard hadn't been able to keep her safe. But Sho would do whatever he could to protect her now. He'd already failed her so many times in the past.

"I'm sorry, Kyoko," the blonde muttered to himself as he clicked the lock button on his phone. The picture blacked out of sight as he rose. "This is the only thing I can do for you."

He turned to Momose as he strode for the door to the hotel hallway.

"Momose-san," Sho muttered gruffly. "Tell your superiors that Delta has the right number of votes."

The heir turned, swinging the door open before him and sweeping through. He snarled out, his voice echoing behind him, "You LME guys better fucking do something about it."

 **-x-**

 _"You don't get it do you? Your reckless actions – your dogged pursuit of revenge to the cost of all else – are to blame. YOU are to blame, Kuon. And now we're all about to pay the price – Mogami-kun most of all."_

Ren winced and rolled over onto his side. Sleep eluded him. Again. Two days Kyoko had been missing, and every effort, every clue, every snippet of a tip-off had led to a dead end.

Not that Ren had been able to go himself to chase each lead down. He was essentially on house arrest, stuck in very select parts of LME HQ. However, today, frustrated at the lack of progress in the hunt for Kyoko and Delta, Ren had forcibly stormed into the President's office to demand he be reinstated to field agent status.

Apparently the stony silence and disapproving look that Lory had shot him when Ren first got back from Chiba had been the master spy restraining himself. But given this second opportunity and now with his frustration apparently at its peak, the President had certainly had an earful for him.

Ren groaned and shifted onto his back again on his bed. President Takarada's thunderous tongue-lashing, made even more terrifying by the full samurai warlord armor complete with sharpened katana in hand, had struck home, rending a mortal wound through Ren's heart.

President Takarada was right. It was all his fault. Kyoko – the girl he cared for – was in the enemy's clutches, alone, afraid. Every moment, her life was in jeopardy. Kuon had been willing to sacrifice everything for his revenge. He hadn't considered that 'everything' could include Kyoko.

His only consolation was that she had clearly been taken for a reason. Delta would most likely keep her alive until the election was over. And then…

Ren sighed and sat up, wiping a heavy hand over his face. He looked over at the nightstand. The provisions manager at the HQ cafeteria had slipped him a full bottle of whiskey last night. After seeing the disgraced senior agent that everyone was whispering about, apparently the usually strict, grizzled old man had had pity on the scandalized Agent T. The bottle was now empty.

Ren was wondering if he could wheedle another bottle out of the manager when a soft, almost hesitant knock sounded from his door.

Ren paused a moment, unsure if he was just hearing things in his sleep-deprived state. There was a heartbeat of a pause, then another knock, this time a little louder. Trying to hand comb his disheveled hair, Ren scrambled from bed to open the door.

Who was it? Did they have news about Kyoko?

Yashiro greeted him with a tentative nod. "Hi… Ren."

Ren could only freeze awkwardly. After that fateful night in Chiba, Yashiro had stopped talking altogether with his assigned field agent. Yashiro's disappointed look when Ren was first brought into the President's office was all the answer Ren needed. For the first time, after all of his devil-may-care antics in the field and all of the last-minute scrapes that Yashiro had gotten him out of, the tech support was finally cold-shoulder angry at his charge.

"Yashiro-san…" Ren couldn't help but shuffle his feet in the doorway, feeling like a child about to be reprimanded by an older sibling. First Maria-chan with the heart-breaking tears, then Kotonami-san with the furious video chat, and now… "What brings you here so late at night?"

The techie opened his mouth, frowned, then sighed. He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I was going to come give you a piece of my mind…"

Ren winced internally, waiting.

"But it sounds like the President, Maria-chan, and Kotonami-san all beat me to it."

Ren felt his heart lift as Yashiro rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "So I guess I'm here now to ask if you need to talk. I'm the type of person who can't stay mad at his friends for long."

Feeling like a balloon deflated, Ren ducked his head, trying to hide the mist that had mysteriously crept over his eyes. Murmuring a thank you, Ren let his old friend into his room.

Tsking his tongue at the gloomy darkness, Yashiro immediately flipped on the light. Ren cringed away from the unexpected brightness. He suddenly felt very self-conscious about the empty beer cans and whiskey bottle on his nightstand and the relatively disheveled state of his living quarters.

Yashiro just stood there, his hands on his hips, and gave a low whistle. He glanced down at the floor.

"It looks like Amamiya-san told you off as well," Yukihito noted dryly as he toed a pile of crinkled papers that looked as if they had been torn from a spiral-bound notebook and shoved under the door. Each paper had words like, "GO BALD!" or "HOW DARE YOU!" or "YOU BIG FAT IDIOT!" nearly carved into them in ballpoint pen.

While Yukihito perused some of Chiori's more colorful insults, Ren busied himself in the kitchenette, making some tea.

The burning question on Agent T's mind finally popped out. "Any luck trying to ping Mogami-san's homing beacon?"

"None." Yashiro sighed heavily, pulling out Ren's desk chair to sit. The agent's heart sank. Yukihito continued, musing, "It's almost as if… they cut it out and shut it off. But how could they have possibly known about its existence? You called me pretty soon after they'd gotten her. Much too fast for even a tracking tech body scan. Unless they've developed a portable handheld unit–?"

Ren shook his head as he dug in the cupboard for the genmaicha teabags he knew Yukihito liked. There was a much simpler solution. "Morizumi. She's Delta's source of info on LME. I'm sure she told him about the beacon. It's standard procedure for all field agents and that policy hasn't changed since she left."

From across the room, the techie nodded. "That makes sense. Morizumi also must've told him about Kyoko-chan and Fuwa-san's childhood friendship."

Thinking back to the assassination attempt on Fuwa Sho, Ren nodded as he carefully settled two steaming teacups on his desk and sat, perched on the edge of his bed. He frowned pensively at the rising steam. "Since Delta had been trying to get to the Fuwa family all this time, maybe he kidnapped her to get to Fuwa."

Yashiro shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Agent T's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"The President didn't want me to tell you – to stop you from doing something reckless or something," the tech support sighed. "But… Momose-san contacted us today. Turns out Fuwa Sho got a phone call today from Delta."

Ren felt a sinking feeling in his gut. "He has the votes then."

"Yes." Yashiro removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes with the heel of his palm. "Apparently over the years, Fuwa Daisuke has been paying a great deal of Representative Takemura's campaigning costs. He even paid quite a bit out of pocket to get Takemura elected this year even amidst his son's scandal. Reports are that Takemura and his loyal cohort are going to shift from Ogata to Saena in three days."

"What have I done…" Ren whispered to himself, the heavy sinking feeling in his gut dropping even farther. He had let this happen. If it wasn't for his damned attempt at killing Kaiso… Delta wouldn't have any fodder to blackmail Fuwa. Worst of all, Kyoko was trapped in the middle of all this… She was alive, but for how long? Feeling a wave of despair drag him down, Ren hung his head in his hands.

"Ren…"

He heard Yashiro scoot his chair closer.

"Tell me about Rick."

Caught off-guard, Ren raised his head and blinked at his tech support, confused. "I thought you already knew about Rick. Back at Fuwa manor, you said–"

Yashiro sat back in his chair and pushed his glasses up on his nose. "The communications between you and the President were vague. All I know is that you played a hand in a friend's death, and it was driving you to act abnormally. Out of professional… and personal courtesy, I stopped investigating there…" Yashiro paused, implying that he could find more if he wanted. "But I want to hear from _you_. I want to know why you did everything you did."

Ren broke off the gaze, pensively silent. Yukihito just waited. Finally, the dark-haired man sighed. Funnily enough after telling Kyoko everything, the idea of his best friend knowing his greatest sins and deepest, darkest secrets seemed like a cakewalk. Maybe telling the story was just getting easier with each iteration.

"My real name is Kuon Hizuri…"

An hour and two cups of tea later, Yashiro stared at his friend, mouth hanging open. Ren had just finished explaining why he had chosen to leave his feelings for Kyoko behind in order to pursue revenge against Kaiso. Ren grimaced, waiting for the condemnation.

Finally, Yukihito spluttered out, "You're an idiot."

Ren was quickly learning that his friend group would never respond as he expected. "What?"

Yashiro ignored him, rising from his chair to pace around the room, muttering to himself, "They're both idiots. Both of them! What kind of density are they going for? Diamond? Neutron star? Osmium? The densest of the dense!"

Shaking his head in disbelief and confusion at this sudden turn of tone and subject, Ren barked a short, nervous laugh. "Yukihito-san, what on earth are you talking about?"

As if realizing that Ren was still there, Yashiro froze, mid-rant. The techie suddenly spun around, gesticulating wildly with his hands. "You! Kyoko-chan! How are you still both this ignorant of each others' feelings?"

"F-Feelings?" Ren felt his face grow warm, as if he were still a grade-schooler talking about crushes at a sleepover. Despite his knowledge to the contrary and all the messy implications if it were true, he couldn't help that his heart skipped a beat at the mere idea of Kyoko returning his feelings. "Mogami-san has never expressed anything of the sort. And even if she did, I couldn't in good conscience return–!"

Ren had no idea that Yashiro's face could contort in such a manner. It looked like the man was trying, in a fit of pure exasperation, to drag his eyelids down and off his face with his hands.

"You belong in the LoveMe group too, you know that?" Yashiro snapped peevishly, brandishing a finger in Ren's direction.

"Have you been talking to the President? Because I really don't think–"

"Kyoko-chan," Yashiro enunciated each syllable as if talking with a particularly slow child, " _loves you_."

"Yashiro-san, this teasing is going a little far–"

"And you love her." Yukihito finished, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's a wonder either of you can claim you work in espionage, because your information-gathering skills are the worst. Everyone else knows but you two!"

"Nobody could love someone like me."

Yashiro blinked and commented wryly, "So says the man with the interdepartmental fan club!"

"That's different than love," Ren insisted, glaring down at his rug. His heart felt heavy. Each of Yashiro's words felt like battering ram to his gut. "That is merely physical attraction. They don't know the real me."

"You mean the real you who is petty and manipulative and childish and hates eating–" Yashiro ticked off on his fingers. He paused sarcastically as if to think before saying flippantly, "Yup, Kyoko-chan has seen all of it."

Finally unable to hold back anymore, Ren flew to his feet and burst out, "I can't have love because I don't deserve it!"

Taken aback, Yashiro looked at him in pensive silence.

"I owe Rick. More than anyone else. More than myself, even!" Ren swept his hand through the air to emphasize his point. "I'm just a friend-killer. A murderer. I cause everyone who ever cares for me pain and suffering."

Yashiro only stared stonily at him. Suddenly, Ren felt very, very tired. He sat shakily down and stated brokenly, "So I can't return her feelings. I don't ever want to force her to endure hardship because I'm too selfish to suppress my feelings for her."

After a gravid pause, Yukihito spoke, his voice low and irritated. "You're an idiot, you know that? You're trading a girl – a girl you love – a girl who loves you – a girl who has been scarred by rejection again and again – for a ghost. Why don't you get your head out of your…" He sighed. "Never mind."

Ren could only watch in stunned silence as his long-time friend huffed, collected his jacket, and stalked to the door. As if deciding to give one last parting shot, Yashiro spun in the threshold, door half-open.

"You said you love her, but you really just love yourself. You said you're trying not to be selfish, but you're just running around doing whatever you want, trampling all over her feelings and safety," Yukihito snapped, his glasses reflecting the room's light harshly. "You said you rejected her to keep her safe? Well, look where your rejection has gotten her. Can't get much more unsafe than that."

And with that, the former hacktivist slammed the door shut behind him.

Unable to completely process the bomb of information Yashiro had just dropped, Ren slowly, slowly cradled his head in his hands and sighed deeply.

He really needed that whisky now.

 **-x-**

For a room that was essentially a cage, it was objectively comfortable. Kyoko's cell interior was concrete with metal bars over the door, but the room was spacious enough to pace three or four long strides before hitting the other wall.

The room even had its own separate toilet area, and out of courtesy apparently the cameras had a blind spot directly above the toilet. She had no idea who would sacrifice security for the sake of a prisoner's privacy, but she was grateful at least for this small remnant of humanity.

She had even been treated well. A guard came through at least three times a day with substantial Japanese-style meals and fresh water. Ito-san – Kyoko had learned on her first day awake – was pleasant enough, even going so far to ask if the change of clothes she'd brought hadn't fit when the female guard noticed the prisoner hadn't changed out of her Setsu outfit. Kyoko had reassured her politely that was not the case, but thank you anyway. Kyoko had even been provided fresh supplies to re-dress the laceration on her left inner bicep – the place where her homing beacon had most likely been cut out. The first day, the cut had looked terrible, like the incision had been made in the backseat of a moving car or something. But as time went on, the wound was healing up nicely.

If it weren't for the bars, it would almost feel as if she were staying in a bare-bones motel, not a prison. It was both a relief and highly unsettling.

But her cot was a different matter. It was her third night here, and the thing was definitely defective. She'd toss and turn all night, no matter how much her logical brain tried to remind itself that she needed to maximize her energy storage. The cot looked exactly like the standard issue one she used during her LME unit wilderness training… but there was definitely something wrong with it.

It wasn't that she couldn't sleep because she kept on thinking about _him_. Wondering if he was worried. Wondering if he was relieved. Wondering if he was thinking about her or missing her as much as she was him.

Biting back a groan, Kyoko rolled onto her other side on the cot, trapped in what was looking like yet another sleepless night.

'Just leave me alone,' she pleaded with her own thoughts. 'Don't make me think about _that_.'

However, since it was the first night having fully recovered from her concussion, her mind decided to ignore her conscious entreaty and chug full speed ahead.

She loved Ren.

Kyoko tossed to the other side of her cot, curling into herself. Sure, she had come to terms with the idea of harboring a small crush toward her senpai and had been actively trying to squash it. But the realization that she was in _love_ with the man…

Moko-san had called her out on her hidden emotions, and ever since then… Kyoko dug the heels of her hands into her eyeballs, as if trying to scrub away the memories hidden in her retinas, but the remembrance came unbidden anyways.

 _'What's with the call? Aren't you deep undercover right now?' Moko-san had sounded irritated, but Kyoko could sense a tight undercurrent of worry in her friend's voice._

 _Still on the couch in the Heel's living room, Kyoko eyed the bowl over the listening bug. She was confident the signal jammer was working, but she still felt bizarre talking in the open like this._

' _I…' Kyoko hesitated. Why_ had _she called Kanae? Advice? Reassurance? Comfort? What could she tell Moko and how much? 'N-Nothing is wrong. Can't I just call my best friend –?'_

 _'Stop.'_

 _Kyoko jolted in her seat, automatically sitting up straighter at her friend's foreboding tone. On the other end of the line, Kanae had launched into a lengthy diatribe._

 _'—same creepy tone of voice as when you're wearing that fake-happy mask of yours. Like that day you dragged me into the LoveMe division with you. What are you scheming this time?'_

 _Kyoko's denial was automatic. 'I'm not scheming anything!'_

 _If Kyoko didn't know Kanae better, she would've sworn that her friend snorted indelicately in disbelief. Then the dark-haired LME agent retorted with, 'Mogami Kyoko, if you don't tell me what you're hiding, I will not speak to you until this very hour next year!'_

 _Well, Kyoko couldn't bear_ that _. It was a Leap Year after all! It wasn't long before Kyoko found herself revealing the events of the past several weeks to her best friend, barring only the details of the story Tsuruga-san had told her in confidence that night._

 _'So… you love him.' Kanae's voice at the end of Agent M's story was matter-of-fact. For some reason, that scared Kyoko._

 _'N-N-No! Love is the scourge of the earth! An alien toxin that boils the blood and poisons the minds of hapless maidens everywhere –!'_

 _Kyoko thought she heard Moko-san mutter something like, '—both idiots, the two of them—' before saying more clearly in an exasperate tone, 'So you're just scared of getting hurt again. What's the big deal? Maybe Tsuruga-san loves you too–'_

 _At Kanae's last sentence, Kyoko felt her heart buoy with hope, but in immediate retrospect at her own reaction, her heart instantly plummeted again._

' _Kyoko,' Kanae was continuing, 'I think it's time you stopped lying to yourself.'_

' _Moko-san—'_

' _You're not outraged at love.'_

' _I—!'_

' _You're just scared of it–!'_

' _I_ am _scared!' Kyoko stammered out. Shaking her head even though she knew her friend couldn't see her, she squeezed her eyes shut._

 _The dark-haired agent on the other line lapsed into silence._

 _'Yes, I'm afraid that I'm going to get hurt. But it's much worse than that,' Kyoko concentrated, struggling to find the right words to pin down her whirling thoughts and emotions. 'I'm… scared that I'm going to love him – to love loving him and love being loved by him. I'm scared that I'm going to love it so much that if –_ when _– it… gets taken away, it's going to take everything of me along with it.'_

 _'Kyoko…' Kanae usually gruff tone softened._

 _'I know if I let myself love him a little, then I'm going to get swept away completely. It'll be like trying to fight gravity – or – trying to swim up a whitewater rapid. Then when it ends–" Kyoko paused, surprised to find tears snaking their way down her cheeks. She swiped at them, angry with herself for her weakness, and fought the growing knot in her throat. '–When it ends, I'm just going to be this hollowed out shell of a person.'_

 _After a prolonged pause, Kanae finally replied simply, 'Then leave him.'_

 _At the mere thought, Kyoko balked. 'No, I couldn't–!'_

 _'Sure you could,' Kanae stated nonchalantly. 'Just call the President and tell him you want out of your assignment. It'd be hard to reassign someone in your place, but the President has done crazier things before.'_

 _'Moko-san…'_

' _If you're that scared and just want to protect yourself,' her friend pointed out, 'then leave.'_

' _Moko-san…' Kyoko wrestled internally. Her friend was just pointing out the logical conclusion, but something deep inside felt very, very wronged by the suggestion. 'I'm really worried that Tsuruga-san is about to do something dangerous.'_

 _'I know,' Kanae said simply. Kyoko could imagine her friend flipping her hair over her shoulder in an haughty gesture. 'You just told me. All the more reason to leave.'_

 _Kyoko spluttered out, 'But that's why I can't leave. I… I have to do_ something _. I can't just leave him alone when he's clearly doing the wrong thing…'_

 _There was another pause, then Agent K chuckled on the other end of the line. 'So you do love him.'_

 _'Huh?' Kyoko was perplexed. She had definitely missed Kanae's leap in logic._

 _'People our age are idiots,' her friend intoned, oblivious to Kyoko's confusion. 'They think love is all about feeling good and comfortable and accepted the way they are. But that's not it. True love is about sacrifice.'_

' _Sacrifice?'_

' _Fake love runs away at the first sign of hardship. Real love seeks the good of the other person, even if it's at a cost to self. You're willing to sacrifice your own safety for his sake. You're willing to sacrifice your friendship because he's doing something wrong and you need to tell him.'_

 _Kyoko thought about Sho. She'd been willing to give everything for him, and he'd given up nothing in return. He'd just taken and taken and taken…_

' _How did you become such a love-guru, Moko-san? The President should graduate you from the LoveMe section.'_

 _Kanae barked a wry laugh. 'It's family love that I hate… And I've seen too many irresponsible members of my family shacking up with the wrong guy or girl to know what real love looks like.'_

 _While Kyoko blushed at her friend's implication of herself 'shacking up' with Ren, Kanae sighed and ended in a mutter, 'My point is – if Tsuruga-san loves you, he won't put you in harm's way. He'll want to put you first, just like you put him first. He'll be willing to sacrifice for you.'_

Moko-san's words had percolated in Kyoko's mind all that night until two days later when Agent M had hopped into Agent T's car. More aware of the depth of her feelings, Kyoko had insisted on tagging along, fully knowing what Ren intended to do during this meeting with Delta. She had gone half out of a desire to do everything in her power to keep Ren out of danger, but also out of this half-baked, convoluted hope that if he truly did love her, then he would turn the car around and give up on this revenge business.

But Ren had barreled straight ahead, regardless of her presence.

Sho had dragged her into a dangerous situation, almost getting her kidnapped. He had betrayed her trust, had cast her feelings for him aside for the sake of his own agenda.

This was different, a small part of Kyoko's heart argued back. Ren hadn't known that she was the target.

But, a larger part argued back, she had actually gotten kidnapped this time. All because she insisted on staying by his side even though he didn't want her. Love was a disaster. Maybe people like her were just never supposed to fall in love.

Clutching her head in her hands in the dark of her empty cell, she whispered to herself all alone, "Fool me twice… Shame on me…"

* * *

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG**

 **Shizuhoe –** Answered 1/3 of your questions in this chapter! ;D That's gotta be a record or something haha Usually I make you wait quite a bit more before my story answers your burning questions. So it turns out that Kyoko didn't call Yashiro or the President to report Ren, but called Kanae instead. Just needed some friendly advice. Hope you enjoyed this chapter even though there wasn't much "action" per say!

 **Moon-lit Shadows12 –** Hehe! A nail-biter! Such a high compliment! I'm really glad that you're enjoying the story! Thanks for stopping by and saying Hi!

 **MWEH** – You're back! Haha I was actually a bit concerned when you didn't review last time. Like, 'Man… I hope nothing happened to MWEH in real life!' xD And don't worry! I haven't glossed over her acceptance of her past… it's just going to be a bit more drawn out than the manga. ;) 3 dogs! What breeds? Mine is from the shelter and he's a mutt but he's the cutest frickin mutt ever! HAHA I take that as both a high compliment and an insult that my cliffhangers are worse than Nakamura-sensei. Last month she quite literally left Kyoko hanging… TT_TT Luckily this month, Kimiko finally gets what's coming too her! Crazy girl. And I wanted to include a flashback of what happened to Ren and Kyoko after he mistakenly took her instead of Mimori – but the story was getting too bloated at that point. Maybe I'll do like a one-shot afterward this story is done! And thank you thank you thank you for all of your encouraging words! I'm so glad that this story is being so well-received and that people are genuinely enjoying it! Today didn't have as much action, but a lot of emotional turning points. Let me know what you thought!

 **Guest** – LOL, please don't have a heart attack! Haha, glad you're enjoying it! Leave a name next time so I can be sure to call out the right person!

 **Artloife** – Yay! I'm really glad you liked last chapter! And how will Kyoko escape? ;3 we shall seeeeee~!

 **Brennakai** – You were correct! Yay! Congrats! And yup, Lory really gave Ren a tongue-lashing when he came back. Figured I didn't want that to be the focus of the chapter, so I just talked about it obliquely. But Yashiro did end up giving Ren a piece of his mind! LOL

 **Erza** – Delta wasn't lying when he told Ren who Kyoko's dad was last chapter. ;) And lol, yeah Sensei literally left Kyoko hanging – off a building – last month! At least by this month, she's pretty much safe and sound! Thanks for leaving a review!

 **Tabbykatroses –** Yaaaaaaas, Delta is Kyoko's father! LOL. Hmmmm, what will he do to her….? We shall find out! Hehe Thanks for reviewing!

 **Guineapigs1 –** LOL, I didn't even notice that parallel! My Kyoko's predicament is going to last a bit longer than canon-Kyoko's, especially since she's pretty much safe this month! And a bit of info I left out was that both drivers of both SUVs were wearing similar glasses; Ren just followed the wrong SUV. Bad luck for Ren (or good planning for Delta) – but you're right. I should've made it more clear. Thanks for reviewing!


	37. Chapter 37

Hello loyal readers!

Sorry that it's been like a month and a half, but I cannot tell you how many times I have re-written this chapter! I was trying to post it last weekend, and at some point I just stopped trying because I realized I was writing for a deadline, not because I actually thought the content was any good.

Hopefully after the umpteenth iteration, it's actually good! Haha Extra long chapter today as a reward for waiting patiently! :3

Today we have Saena and Delta, Kyoko and Kimiko, and a little bit of Ren as all of the chess pieces align for our final showdown! If you're confused about Saena's names used in this first part, I'd recommend going back to read the last bit of Chapter 34. (I know it's been a long time since I posted that one… SORRY! TT_TT)

Hope you enjoy! As always, don't forget to leave a fave, an alert, or a review! Your reviews in particular really make my day special and motivate me extra hard to write!

* * *

 **-x-**

 **CH37**

 **\- 2 days before revote -**

Saena walked briskly down the tiled corridor flanked by two guards. Not by her own choosing did the obviously hired-muscle escort her to the office she had been both dying and dreading to enter since this whole charade began.

To stave off the nerves, she started subtly straightening her appearance, ticking checkmarks off in her mind.

Bun smoothed. Jacket flattened. Suit skirt –

A hand gently caught her wrist. Toudou who had been walking beside her grasped her hand firmly in his warm one. She looked up at him sharply, sure that caught unawares, that damnable frown he loved to mock was affixed to her forehead.

He tried to smile as he gently let her wrist go, but the career lawyer's usually calm demeanor cracked as his smile became an unwitting grimace. Apparently the normally unflappable man was nervous as well. For the first time in a long time, Saena felt a stab of regret, dragging her colleague into a mess that was honestly only her own to clean up. Even though he'd insisted on accompanying her to this extent, she still felt the weight of responsibility for his life heavy on her shoulders.

Despite his anxiety, Toudou attempted his own strange brand of comfort. He chided her in a light murmur, "Mogami-san, in your neurosis, the skirt is always after the jacket, but you never seem to remember your blouse."

Not breaking her pace, Saena reached up and to her amazement, her blouse's collar was stuck at an awkward angle under the jacket. She fixed it swiftly, trying not to think how distracted she had to have been all day to have missed that. She muttered back to her friend, "You never told me before? How many newscasts have you seen me go on with my collar like that?"

Toudou uttered a wry bark of a laugh, "None. I would have told you."

Then there was no more time for talk, because they were there.

The guards slowed in front of a double set of imposing brushed metal doors. Almost eager to face the beast and have her fate decided, Saena squared her shoulders and took a step forward. One of the hired-gun's hands shot up, blocking her path. Startled, Saena almost staggered back, her nerves on edge.

Keeping his hand in the air, a silent yet intimidating barrier, the guard gruffly stated, "Delta requests that Councillor Toudou be returned to the car at this point."

Saena prayed that her face didn't seem as pale as it suddenly felt. Trying to keep herself from spluttering and seeming less authoritative, she attempted in a stoic tone, "That was not the deal. My terms for speaking with Delta were–"

"Mogami-san." Toudou touched her elbow lightly. Saena started, glancing up at him and then following his line of sight to the hand of the guard now resting in a not-so-subtle gesture on his sidearm. Toudou murmured low into her ear, "While I would love to accompany you into this final battle, I would also equally love to avoid unnecessary rough-housing that would not produce a commensurately beneficial result."

"Toudou-san–" She couldn't help the desperate tone that crept in past her usually careful monotone.

Her friend shot her a resigned smile. "We should know when we are outmatched."

Leveling a determined look at him, Saena retorted grimly, "Not outmatched for long."

"We can only hope." Toudou smiled and raised his hand. For a moment, Saena thought he was going to reach for her, then his hand hesitated, faltered, and dropped to his side. He instead murmured quietly, "Stay safe, Mogami-san."

And with what Saena dearly hoped was not the last she'd see of her steadfast colleague, Toudou was ushered away by one of the guards. The remaining guard opened the door and beckoned her to enter Delta's office.

Saena considered herself observant. As a lawyer and a politician, and a female in a man's world at that, she'd had to develop an acute sense of scrutiny and detail-awareness. However, as she entered through the threshold, all she could seem to see was the man in the black trench coat standing behind his desk, facing the large bank of monitors away from the door.

As if drawn by magnets, her feet crossed over the floor and farther into the room. As he heard her approach, the man half-turned. Her heart leapt to the base of her throat.

The man shot her a too-familiar mischievous grin as he turned fully around. "You really didn't have to threaten to jump out of the window in order to see me, you know."

If Saena had been in a desert, her throat couldn't have felt drier. However, she was surprised at how steady her voice came out. Years of practice at faking it, she supposed.

"I needed to make sure that you took me seriously," she drawled in her practiced politician's monotone. "You have been extremely elusive over the years. Isn't that right, _Kazushi_?"

A dark look that seemed very foreign on the face that she'd once loved crossed his visage. However, she thought from some distracted part of her mind, for him Kazushi's face and mannerisms might have been considered the foreign expressions.

Then the man smiled and past her better judgment, she suddenly felt as if the sun had come out from behind the clouds after a very hard rain. Misonoi chuckled and said with a hint of nostalgia, "Well, now… I haven't been called Kazushi in a very, very long time."

"Because Misonoi Kazushi was just another mask for you," Saena said, trying to make her voice as cold and sharp as steel. She couldn't afford to let old feelings get in the way anymore.

"Not just another mask," Misonoi stated with a beatific smile. "It did lead me to you, after all."

Saena fought to keep her eyes trained on him as she snarled out, "Don't lie to me. Misonoi Kazushi was just another identity for you to use then discard."

Her implications hung heavy in the air – ' _I_ was just something for you to use then discard…'

"Well now," the cold stranger wiped the glee off Misonoi's face like a coffee ring under a damp cloth. Saena struggled not to squirm under his powerful gaze and the unnerving, chameleon-like changes. "I suppose we both know a thing or two about discarding troublesome identities. Eh, Makoto?"

She couldn't help but stiffen at her old name before straightening and shooting back her most scathing sarcastic barb. "I suppose I learned from the best."

"Mogami Saena…" Delta mused, clasping his hands behind his back. "Quite a unique name. Did the government pick it for you or did you get to choose when you entered the Witness Protection Program?"

Ignoring the mastermind's question, Saena glared at him and asked the question that had been burning on her mind since the moment Delta's people had first approached her all those years ago. "Why me? You must have known that I was trying to find you."

At her forwardness, Delta chuckled mirthfully, and Saena caught another glimpse of the happy, tender man who had gently broken down every single one of her defenses so many years ago.

"Why you for the keystone piece? The crowning jewel of my plans?" Delta stood and walked around his desk. Saena stood stock still as he approached her, drawing uncomfortably near. Yet her heart turned traitor and began to beat a ragged rhythm in her chest.

"Because you are worthy, my dear."

Misonoi raised a gentle hand to brush a stray piece of hair out of her face, his hand barely skimming across her skin. A feeling of self-loathing began to percolate in her gut as she felt her cheeks flush.

"And maybe a small part of me had always hoped that we would be reunited one day," Misonoi murmured wistfully. "Under better circumstances."

"Better circumstances?" Saena closed her eyes and breathed out a shuddering sigh, stepping back out of his reach. "You mean when you aren't seducing me to steal my company's secrets and frame me for corporate negligence and murder?"

A look the politician could not pinpoint crossed over her former lover's face, but Delta took her anger as his cue to get back to business as well. He turned around to walk back to his desk.

"Now, Makoto," Delta said as he settled into his desk chair, steepling his fingers in front of him. "I'm sensing that you're not here to just reminisce over old times…"

"No," Saena gazed stoically at him, despite the fluttering in her gut. Here it was. No turning back. "I'm here to tell you that I quit."

Delta froze. "Excuse me?"

The hardness in his voice made Saena's stomach churn nervously. Still she soldiered on, leveling her coldest glare at him. "You abandoned me when it was most important. I have spent years hunting you down – chasing a ghost – living just for this day. The day that I abandon you when it's most critical for you."

Delta's expression didn't change. This worried Saena, but she stood her ground.

"I'm going to resign from the House of Councillors," she announced, watching his face carefully. "The New Change Party will have no choice but to dissolve. And you will be behind bars."

At this, Delta raised a brow. Feeling a bit relieved that she had at last managed to get a reaction out of the man, Saena continued, feeling more and more triumphant. "I have spent no small amount of time and effort compiling evidence. No matter how careful you have been to destroy the proof, you never could have eliminated all of it. And I have hundreds of witnesses in the politicians you have ruined and their family and friends you have blackmailed and threatened. You can't silence them all. And you can't silence me."

Time for her ace in the hole. Delta had begun to clutch his hands tighter and tighter on his desk. A minute change, but one Saena was pleased to observe.

"If I don't walk out of here in the next hour," the politician declared, "and go to a certain bio-locked computer terminal and log onto a certain encrypted website and enter a certain code, all of this evidence will be immediately sent to every single major news outlet, the police, and the PSIA."

By this point, the look on Delta's face was thunderous.

"You will never take control of this country," Saena concluded. The phrase she had been waiting for nearly two decades to utter passed her lips with practiced ease. "You lose, Kazushi."

Delta was silent. The dark-haired woman waited with baited breath for him to break. She had absolutely cornered him. All of his plans were in ruins now. She had finally, finally gotten her revenge on him.

"You're blackmailing me?" His voice came out a strangled growl. She could almost laugh.

"Yes."

Finally, finally, Delta spoke and in her millionth iteration of imagining his reaction to her vengeance, she had never considered his actual answer.

"Fine."

Saena took a step back in surprise, her high heel echoing hollowly about the room. "F-Fine? I come and ruin your plans, and you–"

"It's fine," Delta mused, his facial expression smoothing itself over into a passive, simmering anger that she found nearly three times as disconcerting as any outburst. "Because you're going to walk out of this room, tell your friend Toudou that you've given up, and go back to that computer, log into that website, and enter that password."

"W-What?" Composure now lost, Saena stammered, completely at a loss. "I absolutely will not–"

"Hmmm? You won't?" Delta asked innocently, cocking his head to the side. "Not even if I have something precious of yours?"

At this threat, Saena uttered a bitter bark of a laugh. "Everything precious to me has either been taken away or thrown away a long time ago."

"Oh really?" The smug look on Delta's face sent Saena's heart plummeting. "I guess I've found one of your cast-offs then."

He produced a remote control from under his desk and clicked a button. Immediately the screens behind him flashed to form a giant picture. On it was grainy security camera footage of a prison cell. A girl sat within, hugging knees tucked protectively against her chest. Her hair was longer and blonde, and her clothes were much more provocative than Saena had last seen at the PM's birthday gala, but it was definitely her.

Kyoko.

"Should I dispose of her, if you've thrown her away?" Delta asked, tilting his head in mock-curiosity.

Unable to formulate a proper response, Saena could only gape at the video feed.

"My dear, naive Makoto," Delta mused, considering her with a smirk from behind his desk. " _That_ is how you blackmail someone."

Failed. All of these years – all of these emotions – all for what? In the end, she had just become his tool again. Bitter tears stung the corners of her eyes as desperation swelled in her breast.

"Fine. Do it."

Delta's eyes widened, still mocking her in his calculated surprise. "You don't really mean that do you?"

Unable to watch the video feed any longer, Saena turned away painfully. She grit her teeth. "Of course I do. What does that girl mean to me?"

Each word felt like acid in her mouth. And Delta knew it.

"Konoe-san, you can send in the guards to eliminate Mogami Kyoko now."

As Saena's head flew up in a panic, the mastermind caught her wide-eyed alarm. Not dropping eye contact, Delta clicked the remote again. The monitor behind him splint into two screens – one with Kyoko waiting unwitting in her cell, and the other with half a dozen armed men marching down a corridor that Saena absolutely knew led to her daughter's holding room.

"Make sure you strip her and parade her before all our mercenaries before ending her." Delta smiled broadly at Saena as he cheerily requested, "Make it painful. Oh, and dump her body in Tokyo Bay after you're done."

Heart thumping audibly in her ears, Saena could only watch helplessly as the leading guards reached the cell door. She could see Kyoko behind the iron bars, scrambling back on the cot.

She had abandoned this girl once before. She would do it again. She had already disqualified herself from the honor of being called a mother. This girl was nothing to her… Nothing compared to getting revenge on Kazushi.

The guard's aggression was obvious in the slant of his rigid shoulders as he reached for the ring of keys on his waistband. Kyoko mouthed a question, unheard over the video-only feed. The guard snarled back an answer that made the girl go limp.

She could do this. She could do this.

The armed man turned the key in the lock. Kyoko seemed frozen in terror. The gravid weight in Saena's chest plummeted.

She couldn't do this.

"WAIT. STOP!"

A quick flick of the remote from Delta, and the guard halted.

Panting, Saena realized that it was herself who had shouted. Delta raised a brow at her. At the end of it all, she just couldn't throw that girl away. Closing her eyes against the simultaneous onslaught of relief and self-loathing, she stammered out, "I… I'll do whatever you want. Just… stop…"

Delta clicked the button, and on the monitor all the guards withdrew, tramping back up the walkway. Kyoko collapsed back onto the cot, feeble and limp as the screen blacked out.

Gritting her teeth, Saena balled her hands into fists, feeling the despair wash over her. All of these years, all of these plans, all of these emotions… wasted. She said the only thing that would come to mind.

"I hate you."

Past her distress, she couldn't entirely tell, but Delta's smirk seemed to fade for a moment, the corners of his mouth pulling into a thin-lipped smile.

"Now, now Makoto dear," Delta murmured, his tone deceptively cloying. "What is that saying? Hate and love are two sides of the same coin? I'm sure you'll flip back around in time. After all, we will have years to rule Japan together, my darling Prime Minister."

Leaning forward, Delta held down a small button on his desk phone. "Councillor Mogami is finished with her conversation and wishes to be escorted back to her vehicle. Please take her to any destination she wishes. After which she would like to return here until the final Diet vote has been confirmed."

The voice on the other end noted an affirmative, and Delta ended the call. For the second time in her life, Saena felt so infuriated and hopeless and emotionally ravaged that she had no biting remark. But Delta had one for her.

"Aren't you being a hypocrite?" The mastermind remarked coolly as he picked up an envelope from his desk. As he spoke, he emptied a small, thin cylinder into his palm before closing his fist. "You fault me for leaving you behind, yet you so willingly tossed _her_ aside, all for your own aims?"

A familiar stab of regret she had thought long-buried pierced her chest. Swallowing her guilt, Saena narrowed her eyes at him and replied with equal coldness, "Like I said. I learned from the best."

There was no verbal reply, but Delta turned away; Saena knew when she was being dismissed. But thoughts finally collected, she had one last piece of ammunition.

"You're her father you know," she snapped bitterly, hoping to get a response.

Nothing. Not even a flinch. Whether he knew or whether he hadn't known, either way, if Delta was still intent on holding Kyoko hostage, despite that knowledge, then…

"You're a monster," Saena hissed.

Busy examining the object in his palm, Delta still did not look up as the guards returned to escort her out of the room. However as she was walking out, she thought she heard a quiet voice say, "Good-bye… Makoto."

 **-x-**

Kyoko fell into a fitful sleep that night, even more on-edge than the previous nights due to her harrowing experience that afternoon. All night, leering armed guards reached for her, chasing her down darkened corridors, their impure intentions plastered clearly on faces that morphed into ugly, grey goblin-grins with long teeth. All the while, she desperately searched the halls for someone who would keep her safe. She had a vague dream-sense that he was up ahead, but she could never quite catch up to him…

When she awoke that morning, Kyoko still felt exhausted. Disoriented, she blinked blearily at the ceiling. She had half expected to be woken up roughly and with no warning, dragged away to who knew where for who knew what purpose at the same caprice that had narrowly and inexplicably spared her the day before.

Her cell had no clock, but judging by the tug of hunger in her stomach, she guessed it was the morning. Despite a lack of appetite, she had dutifully ate the meals set before her morning, noon, and night, and now her body had grown accustomed to some manner of a feeding schedule. Biting back a weary sigh, Kyoko got out of bed to start the day.

However, an hour or so later when Ito-san still had not emerged with her breakfast tray, Kyoko began feeling a pit of unease build in her stomach. Had she just woken up very early, her internal clock thrown off by anxiety? Or had the terrifying threat of the guards yesterday signaled that her status had somehow changed?

Then a faint echo drifted down the hall. A single pair of footsteps. Kyoko's ears perked up, and then her heart sank. The footsteps' cadence was much different than that of the surprisingly congenial female guard who visited her three times a day. Whereas Ito-san's were measured and easy-going, these steps were brisk and sharp, aggressive almost.

Kyoko rose to assess the threat before she was caught off-guard like last time. As she caught sight of her visitor, the bad feeling in her gut blossomed into full-fledged bitterness.

Striding down the hall, Morizumi Kimiko glared back at her, a broad smirk playing across her lips. The brunette flipped her long, curled hair over one shoulder as she slowed to a stop before the bars of Kyoko's cell door.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the _new_ Agent M," the Henshin assassin cooed. "Where's Agent T? Hasn't he come to save you yet?"

Not wanting to show her enemy the stab of pain she felt, Kyoko turned away from the bars and silently headed toward the back of her cell.

"Wha~t?" Kappa called after her, her voice upturned in clear mockery. "I just came to talk. I'm sure you haven't heard the news after all…"

'Just ignore her,' Kyoko repeated over and over in her mind as she sat cross-legged on her bed, facing the wall. 'Ignore her and she'll go away.'

"Not interested even a teensy-weensy bit?"

Silence.

Kimiko gave a rather theatrical sigh. "Oh, well… I was trying to be nice by telling you that Fuwa Sho managed to give Delta all the Diet votes he needed—"

"WHAT!" Brief vow of silence forgotten, Kyoko flew to her feet. But as the news sunk in, her sense of rage swiftly dissipated into a feeling of staggering defeat. Delta had the votes to get her mother elected over Ogata… But how? Why? Why would Sho help Delta?

"I ma~y have told Delta that you and Fuwa were childhood friends…" Cocking her head to the side, Kimiko pretended to think, tapping a manicured nail to her chin. "It seems like no matter how Fuwa treated you like a used candy wrapper, he still values you enough to bargain for your life."

Sho had given Delta the votes to spare her life? As her mind began to make out the links, Kyoko's legs suddenly seemed to adopt all the structural integrity of gelatin. She grasped the wall as she slid to the floor.

That was why she was being kept alive. She was not merely an intelligence agent held captive. She was a hostage, and her captivity would propel Delta to victory. Kyoko whispered hoarsely to herself, "It's all my fault…"

"Oh no, dear Kyoko," Kimiko crooned. Kyoko glanced up, feeling as if she had just been punched in the gut, wary of another attack. The former Agent M continued, her voice coy, "It's not _your_ fault… It's Tsuruga Ren's fault."

Kimiko's smirk hardened into a bitter, tight-lipped grin. "It's always _his_ fault."

Looking down and trying to collect her wits, Kyoko ran a hand through her Setsu wig. Her throat suddenly felt dry. The LME agent managed to croak out, her voice thin and quavering, "This… This isn't his fault... I was the one who got caught–"

A loud titter interrupted the rest of her sentence. Kimiko dabbed at her eyes as if the LME agent had just told a hilarious joke. Mocking laughter still tracing her voice, Kappa shook her head and said, "You poor, deluded girl… Still so loyal. You ended up falling in love with him, didn't you? You don't even believe the very words that are passing through your lips."

That barbed verbal arrow hit home. Kyoko had to quickly duck her head so Kimiko wouldn't see the glistening tears building in her eyes.

"Don't feel too badly about it. It happens all the time with the great Agent T. Partners falling for him, that is." Kimiko's voice had taken the cold, steel tones of someone bitterly wronged. "Even before I became his kouhai, he'd had this reputation, but I didn't listen. I was a fool."

Morbid curiosity piqued, like a soldier unable to help but stare at the fatal bullet wound in his chest, Kyoko turned to regard the former LME agent.

"The characters he plays are so convincing…" Kappa barked a short, spiteful laugh. "He makes you think that he cares for you. He makes you think you're special…"

Half of Kyoko wanted to snatch her hands up over her ears and cry at the top of her lungs so she wouldn't have to hear anymore. The other half, drawn by a foreboding sense that every single one of her deepest fears was true, yearned to hear the rest, if only to more quickly cauterize the gaping hole these broken feelings had left in her soul.

"I did everything right," Kimiko continued, her stare at the bars of the cell becoming hollow. "I worked hard at my job. I protected him when I could. Even when other women threw themselves at him during missions, I endured it…"

Kyoko could only lower her eyes to the floor, her heart a stone in her stomach.

"I… I thought he… I…" Kimiko's voice cracked. But that seemed to break the spell, and she shook her head angrily. "The day I finally confessed to him, he just thanked me, kept that damned sparkling smile up, and… and _apologized_ ," the brunette snarled. "Like my feelings were just some dishes he'd dropped and shattered on the floor by accident."

Kyoko's hand curled into a fist against the wall as her heart clenched painfully. She had mercifully never confessed her feelings to Ren, but she could only imagine that her experience would have been similar. It would've just been Sho all over again… but worse.

"Then at the end of that mission, we got dragged into a firefight with enemy agents." Kimiko's hand gripped one of the metal bars of the door as she finished. "There was only one LME casualty that day…"

The Henshin agent's free hand ghosted over her left shoulder, near her heart.

"Why are you telling me this?" Kyoko asked, her voice shaking with emotion.

"Revenge," Kimiko growled out. "I'm going to make sure that every single woman on this planet knows what a conniving heartbreaker Tsuruga Ren is."

Shaking her head again, Kappa continued, her voice dripping with disdain, "Tsuruga Ren lures you into his act, and suddenly when it comes down to reality, you're left reeling and all alone, the floor pulled out from under your feet."

Kyoko nodded miserably.

"He makes you feel like his love is the only thing you'll ever need, and he's ready to provide it."

Kyoko nodded again, pinching her eyes closed in pain.

"But then he puts this impenetrable armor on and pushes you away with this perfect façade–"

Kyoko continued to nod. Then stopped. 'Well, perfect except when he's refusing to eat. Or when he's being a bully. Or when he's sick and delirious with fever –'

"He pretends to be kind and gentle in the beginning, but then politely turns away–"

'Actually, he really hated me in the beginning…' Kyoko narrowed her eyes at the remembrance.

"—Always perfectly in control–"

A memory echoed in Kyoko's mind. Ren gazed out the window of the Edo Land ferris wheel, a haunted smile twisted on his face. 'I lost control of myself,' he had said.

"—Always so independent—"

'I might be counting on you a lot more for this upcoming mission,' he'd also said, locking eyes with her reflection across the gondola.

"—Always so enigmatic, not sharing a thing about himself–"

'My real name is Kuon Hizuri,' Ren said, hanging his head in his hands as he sat slumped against the bathtub rim.

"—Always so distant and cold, not caring about anything but the mission and professional courtesy–"

The last she had seen of Ren in the parking garage right before she'd been knocked out – the look in her partner's brown eyes of sheer, undiluted panic and breath-stealing regret– spoke of anything but coldness and mere professionalism.

The man and the actions Kimiko had experienced were completely different from her own memories of Ren. Now ignoring the Henshin agent's ongoing diatribe, Kyoko's brow furrowed.

Different… why? Kyoko felt as if she were back in her dream, endlessly yet desperately chasing an answer always a hairsbreadth out of reach. The answer was in the dissonance between the two stories, if only she could tune into the correct frequency…

And suddenly, like the sun breaking out from behind a bank of clouds, the answer she'd been avoiding out of fear for so long became abruptly clear.

He really did care for her.

Kyoko felt herself audibly gasp, a hand going to clasp over her mouth. Her face went warm as she blushed from the tips of her toes up to the top of her head. Her heart did a gymnastic tumble in the pit of her stomach.

In Chiba, he had tried to protect her by pushing her away, but he'd unintentionally dragged her into a trap as she'd insisted on following him. She could imagine him struggling through this dilemma, ultimately wanting atonement for his sins against Rick. Kanae was right about sacrifice, but what if Ren had decided to sacrifice himself to prevent Kyoko from becoming more entangled in his destiny?

Kyoko snorted. In some ways, that sounded too ridiculously convoluted, but for a complicated man prone to over-thinking like her partner, the idea fit like a glove.

Then a second realization hit her. Tsuruga Ren had told Bo the chicken that he was secretly in love with a high school girl – his childhood friend – but he was hiding his true identity from her. So did that mean that Ren was actually–!

Kuon Hizuri. Kuon. Kuorn. Corn?

"CORN!?" Kyoko yelped out, smacking the palm of her hand against her forehead.

"Corn? What are you talking about!"

Startled back to reality by Kimiko's harsh demand, Kyoko glanced up, blinking in bewilderment at her new revelations. "Oh. Sorry… I forgot you were there. I suppose that's rude, isn't it? Did you still want to talk?"

Nails raking against the metal bar of the cell door, Kimiko immediately flushed up to her hairline in anger. Indignant, she spluttered out, "W-What! What are you talking about?"

"I think he loves me," Kyoko replied simply, still completely amazed herself. Kimiko forgotten, Agent M picked herself up off the floor and began to pace back and forth in her cell. Unconsciously, she began muttering a baffled-incredulous-panicked stream of consciousness, "He loves me? Oh Kami-sama, he does doesn't he? He's such an idiot. We're both idiots. Moko-san was right. Is he really Corn though? How is that even possible–?"

Meanwhile, from some far corner of her mind, Kyoko was listening to Kimiko work herself into a very close imitation of an epileptic fit in her rage. Finally the LME traitor managed, "Are you a moron! Weren't you listening to anything I said? Besides, if he really loved you, he would have come rescue you by now."

Only half-aware of herself answering, the rest of her mind a rapidly whirling mess careening toward unintelligible giddiness, Kyoko answered with simple confidence, "He'll come."

From the door, Kimiko scoffed with the loud bluster of one trying to come up with some sort of insult on the fly, "Well… C-Congratulations on your ability to live in a fantasy world, you… you-!"

Kimiko's face turned an unnatural shade of crimson as her mouth gaped open and closed repeatedly, devoid of any words. Finally, her mouth snapped shut and a cold fire lit back into her eyes. As she spun on her heel to exit, she spat out, "Whatever! You're just… You're just… A plain, boring girl!"

As Kimiko beat a hasty retreat, Kyoko slowed her pacing and stared at the back of her cell at the toilet. Her eyes glazed over as she remained deep in thought, yet she managed to catch Kimiko's last barb.

Mind working furiously, Kyoko murmured thoughtfully to herself, "A plain, boring girl, huh…"

 **-x-**

 **\- Day of the revote -**

"Eighty-eight… Eighty-nine… Ninety…"

Sweat beaded on Ren's forehead as he finished off his last set of push-ups. He could feel the droplets of perspiration trickling down the back of his neck. The strain in his muscles offered a welcome distraction from the nagging temptation to get up and run around the LME unit headquarters, bragging to each and every soul he could lay his hands on that Mogami Kyoko loved _him_.

A goofy smile crept over his lips, quickly followed by a gut-wrenching frown. Ren had to physically shake his head to dispel it.

'Concentrate,' he ordered himself sternly, dipping into another push-up.

But damn, it was difficult to focus. Yukihito – that cursed busybody – had been right. Ren had been too selfish – driven by fear of his crushing guilt and too scared to accumulate more guilt by potentially hurting Kyoko – that he'd actually ended up hurting her.

"One-hundred." Agent T collapsed to the floor, winded. Despite his best efforts, his mind spiraled downward into regret and concern. Who knew if he'd ever see her again? Who knew if he'd ever get to tell her that he loved her?

Groaning, he rolled over and forced himself to move to the shower. He had to keep busy or risk drowning in a typhoon of emotions. Elation, remorse, worry – around and around on repeat. Rushing through his hygiene routine, Ren emerged from the bathroom and finished towel-drying his hair, sending drops of water flying.

As he walked by his desk, a small flash of reflected light caught his eye. Ren paused. A small blue stone rested in the center of his work area. He'd found it, unintentionally abandoned by its owner in the Heels' apartment. The rock in a small, pink, decidedly un-Setsu-like purse had been smuggled into the apartment despite her character, and Ren had smuggled it out.

With a bittersweet smile, Ren reached down to pick the stone up. He turned it over and over in his hands, his heart heavy. He was about to put it down, when he hesitated. On a whim, he lifted the rock up to the overhead light and watched the fractals sparkle through the crystals in the stone. Blue flashed to gold and back. A small grin flit across Ren's lips.

" _When the colors change, you can feel your mood getting lighter at the same time, right? It's magic, you know?"_

Ren chuckled and caressed the rough edge of the fateful stone with his thumb. She'd been so excited to encourage him, even after he'd treated her so miserably right before her first mission – even though she'd ended up saving him. How far they'd come since then…

Cocking his head to the side, Ren looked down at the rock in his hands. Curiously, his heart did feel a little lighter after all.

 _KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK_ – pause – _BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!_

Startled, Ren almost catapulted the rock up out of his hands toward the ceiling and had to juggle the precious stone for a moment before catching it and stowing it safely again on his desk. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ren turned toward his door with a frown.

"Now what."

The knocker continued to hammer on his door as Ren strode forward. Yanking it open, Agent T barely managed to catch Yashiro as his friend stumbled into the room, wheezing and out of breath.

"Yukihito-san?" Ren faltered, helping Yashiro into the room. "What on earth–?"

"Ren," Yashiro rasped, sounding as if he'd run a marathon in a desert. "I ran – (cough) – from the Tech Workroom."

"…That's not very far from here, Yashiro-san. Maybe you should consider exercising more often–"

Yashiro waved his hand and leaned against Ren's wall, doubled-over trying to catch his breath.

"Kyoko-chan," the techie managed to gasp out. Instantly, Ren stiffened, his heart skipping a beat. Yashiro finished stammering, "Homing beacon... Got pinged."

"WHAT!" Ren's hands flew up to clutch his friend's arms. He tried to resist the nearly overwhelming urge to shake the man silly. "What are we standing around for? Let's GO!"

Still gasping for breath like a beached fish, Yashiro just flapped his hand at Ren. He managed a breathless, "Go on… (cough) Command Post. (wheeze) I'll catch up… in a bit–"

Agent T didn't even hear the rest of Yukihito's sentence as he had already sprinted out of the room.

As he ran, not caring that he roughly pushed past half a dozen bewildered co-workers in his haste, Ren clenched the brown leather watchstrap on his wrist and offered up a small prayer.

 _'I'm sorry, Rick. I don't deserve it, but… Please… Just this once, please…'_

* * *

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG** **(Section where I respond to the 5+ most interesting reviews for the recent chapter)**

 **Guineapigs1** – It's true! It's like this uncanny active avoidance of the truth that keeps them blind to their feelings for each other. But that's also part of the hilarious part of Skip Beat. No matter how romantic the situation, Kyoko will spin the circumstances on their head and look at it in some way that Ren's intentions are misconstrued as definitely unromantic and only platonic. As for Sho, next chapter he really turns a corner and I'm looking forward to seeing how people respond to it! Thanks again for the reviews! :D

 **Brennakai** – LOL, I really enjoyed writing that bit about Chiori sticking the notes under the door. xD Thanks for leaving a review!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – No worries! I totally know what you mean about it being nice to have a backlog of chapters to read. I usually only read completed manga and fanfictions because I can't stand the idea of being in suspense for such a long time. Skip Beat is the only manga that is incomplete that I actually am willing to wait for month by agonizing month. TT_TT As for Kyoko's picture – it actually was her! She has legit been kidnapped and is being held hostage. She's still wearing her Setsu get-up because she's too depressed to change out of it… and also for various plot reasons soon to be revealed… *rubs hands together* muhahaha! Thanks again Aikori!

 **Tabbykatroses** – LOL yessss last month was the sulking chapter. That's a perfect way of putting it! Everyone was in a dark emotional hole. Luckily it only took one chapter for everyone to mostly snap out of it! Also, you didn't miss anything about Saena. I hadn't mentioned until this week whether she knew of Kyoko's kidnapping, and she didn't know about it. Kyoko's being held double-hostage! Haha Thanks again for reviewing!

 **MWEH** – How could I NOT miss you? I think I've said before and I'll say again, but you're far and above my most faithful reviewer and I really look forward to your reviews at the end of each chapter! I'd never heard of a Eurasier, but after looking up a picture, I feel like I've seen them around before and just lumped them in with chow chows! We were trying to get this cute Italian Greyhound mix from a rescue but the rescue decided to give the dog to someone else. TT_TT But we ended up getting Murphy (who we think is a long-haired Chihuahua/ Kokoni mix?), and I wouldn't trade him for anything now. :D What did you think of the May chapter of SB? I feel like there were probably paparazzi in the bar who got a shot of that slimy old lady kissing our precious Ren. *hmph*! As for the extra chapter about Ren and Kyoko's first mission together, it's already like half written but I just need to polish it up and finish the other half. I'll most likely either post it in this story or as an entry into a series of SB AU one-shots I want to do after this story. I'm happy to hear I was able to give you a good case of the feels! That's always a great thing to hear as a writer that I've been able to evoke emotions in other with my writing! Thanks MWEH!

 **Erza** – Sorry to keep you biting the inside of your cheeks in anticipation for so long! Haha Don't worry. You'll get both of your wishes, and Ren will definitely be super handsome and doubly badass. ;D As for the manga, I'm going to be so angry when it turns out that some paparazzi caught a pic of that crazy cougar's kiss, and it's going to end up hurting Kyoko. *facepalm* Thanks again for reviewing Erza! The great escape (for Kyoko) is coming! Haha

* * *

 **Don't forget to leave a fave, alert, or review! Help be my muses :) Next chapter should be out by the first week of July!**


	38. Chapter 38

Hello Loyal Readers!

I'm posting a week early, because I'm so excited to get this show on the road!

I know posts are far and few between (especially considering my original weekly posting schedule), but thank you for bearing with me and all of my life changes! I really appreciate each and every one of you who reads, follows, and reviews!

Thank you all! Almost to 90 faves! Woohoo!

This week, we have our rescue squad suiting up, a sudden change of heart, a subtle escape, and an old villain returning to the fray! Enjoy!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH38**

 **\- 3 hours and 15 minutes until revote -**

"It's a trap."

"I know it's probably a trap," Ren groused, still half out of breath from his wild sprint to the Command Post from his living quarters. He stood, facing off against the President across a large, marble-topped conference table. Only the blipping of computers and the frenzied clacking of keyboards sounded in the tense air as the dozen tech supports and strategists scattered about the room attempted to sink deeper into their seats, desperately trying to ignore the heated argument behind them.

Agent T thumped his palm down on the table, just to emphasize his point. "But what if it's _not_! What if Mogami-san's actually escaped and is trying to contact us?"

Golden epaulets of his nineteenth-century Russian czar coat winking dangerously in the light, Lory narrowed his eyes. "Boy, you walked into one of Delta's traps less than a week ago. Are you so keen to walk into another one?"

Matching the President's flinty glare, Ren just stared back and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's worth the risk."

The President didn't waver. So Ren decided to play his trump card. "For Ky-Kyoko–" her given name felt foreign in his mouth, and he felt himself blush as his eyes fell to the floor "—for her, it's worth the risk."

There was only silence. Unnerved and hope sinking, Ren raised his gaze.

In all of his years of knowing him, Tsuruga Ren had never seen Takarada Lory look quite so flabbergasted. The President's mouth gaped open as the master spy only stared at Agent T blankly. One blink. Two. Ren was almost tempted to wave a hand in front of the man's face to ensure that he was still conscious. "Pres–?"

"You're an idiot." Takarada finally managed, his voice incredulous. "You actually, finally figured it out!"

First Kotonami via video, then Amamiya in her notes, and then Yashiro in the flesh – Ren felt like throwing his hands in the air. "Is everyone done calling me an idiot? Can we please get back to the matter at hand?"

"But you _are_ an idiot," a female voice called out.

The two men turned toward the doorway. Brandishing a phone in her hand, Amamiya Chiori let the door slam shut behind her as she stalked up the conference table toward Ren. Agent T had to swallow a nervous lump as he tried not to shy away from the dark-haired fury who had written him so many creatively poisonous threats just days before. But the Number Three LoveMe girl merely narrowed her eyes and waved her phone at his face. "You're an idiot if you think you're going anywhere to save Kyoko-san without us!"

"Us?" Ren and President Takarada echoed in confusion.

The phone screen leapt to life as Kotonami Kanae's infuriated visage flashed across the screen. She shot both men a challenging glare. "We're going."

"Kotonami-kun…" The President shook his head as he groaned, "You're deep undercover as the Prime Minister's personal assistant and guard."

"The Kimagure Unit is taking over," Kanae snapped peevishly. It looked as if she were hastily stuffing stealth gear and gadgets into a small duffel bag. "They owe Kyoko anyhow. And Prime Minister Ogata knows."

Takarada pinched the bridge of his nose. "You can't just–!"

Ignoring him, Kanae briskly reached off-screen, grabbed her Glock pistol, released her ammo clip, slammed a fresh one into place, and pulled back the slide with a loud _SNAP_. She glared at the camera.

If Ren weren't so bent on the same goal, he would almost have felt sorry for Lory, who seemed as if he were about to have two migraines at once.

"Fine!" The President flapped his hands in the air, sinking back into his cushioned desk chair with a tired groan and a clacking of golden medals on his ornamental coat. He pouted at Chiori and the cell phone screen. "So mean. You LoveMe girls ganging up on me…"

Satisfied, Kanae dropped her gun into her bag with an air of finality and a loud _harrumph_. Chiori hastily pocketed the phone and rushed over to speak about gear, strategy, and transportation preparations with Yashiro who had finally made his way to the Command Post, still slightly winded.

Now alone, the President looked up at Ren, his exasperation vanishing and an amused gleam in his eye. "Even if it is a trap, I can't just abandon my Number One LoveMe girl."

"You would've sent a team anyway." Ren blanched. He'd been had. "You were just trying to get me to admit my feelings."

"Of course," Lory winked and waved a hand at all the tech supports and strategists in the room. "What do you think they've been working on all this time? Next week's obento sale?"

Then Takarada's eyes lost their amused warmth and turned serious, regarding Ren. Lory said in an even tone, "Besides, that girl has been abandoned far too many times, don't you think?"

"I agree completely." Solemnly, Ren gazed back, feeling as if he were making a vow. "Never again for the rest of her life, if I have anything to say about it."

Lory chuckled and tucked a fist under his head as he regarded Ren. "I guess I won't have to stick you in the LoveMe group after all."

Thankful that the President was at least being mature about the matter of his newly-blossoming love life, Ren smiled and responded wryly, "It was certainly a narrow escape."

A small sound perked Agent T's ears up. It sounded like a distant, monotonous wail… but it was getting louder and louder until –

"GRA-ND-FA-THE-R!" Takarada Maria launched herself through the Command Post's double doors and straight into the President's lap. She bounced up and down, shaking him by the lapels of his czar's coat, causing the medals to jangle discordantly. "Grandfather! Is it true? You found Onee-sama?"

"Yes, Maria, but–!"

"I'm going too!"

President Takarada frowned. "No, absolutely not."

Instantly, tears welled in Maria's eyes. "But I've got to! Onee-sama is all alone, and p-probably afraid, a-and–!"

Ren sank to one knee and gathered the girl up in his arms. "Maria-chan…"

Now sobbing miserably, Maria scrubbed at her eyes fruitlessly as more tears surged to the surface. "I-I know I'll just get in the way, but Onee-sama was there for _me_ when I was alone and afraid! I have to—!"

Bringing the weeping girl forward to look him in the eye, Ren chucked a finger under her chin until she was looking at him. He held her gaze and said solemnly, "Maria-chan. I promise you on my very life that I will bring Mogami-san back."

Maria hiccupped, her tears finally slowing. "P-Promise?"

Ren nodded with a small smile. "Yes."

For a long moment, the young girl only searched his face. Then she noted in an astonished tone eerily beyond her years, "Wow. Ren-sama finally figured it out."

Standing to his feet, Agent T watched with a withering stare as the President's granddaughter, spirits restored, flounced over to Yashiro and Chiori, joining in on the conversation of preparations.

He really had been an idiot if Maria – a child – had been able to see what he hadn't. But then again she was related to the Love Monster, so sniffing out romantic relationships was probably in her DNA or something…

Yashiro broke off from Maria and Chiori who were running through the doors, apparently to collect the appropriate gear and weapons while the tech supports and strategists in the Command Post finalized ideal entry-points and exit strategies.

"I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but what are we going to do about the revote?" Yashiro inquired. He pointed to the giant timer on the screen at the front of the room. It read a countdown of two hours and fifty-five minutes. "We need to get Kyoko out so that Delta doesn't have a hostage, but are we going to make it in time?"

"Delta's agents have already been spotted guarding the periphery of the Diet," Lory mused. "The PSIA's plan had been to send in agents disguised as radicalized protestors who would force an emergency evacuation to cancel the vote today, but—"

"At this point, Delta's men will just slaughter anyone who tries to stand in his way," Yashiro finished grimly.

"And if we cancel the vote now, Mogami-san will be the first one in danger," Ren pointed out the bleak situation. He frowned pensively at the floor. "But we _can_ stall it until we can get Mogami-san out."

"The PSIA has already worked every angle – against my advisement because all their plans jeopardize Mogami-kun's safety," Lory growled. "Every agent we send in there will be eliminated by Delta's forces with extreme prejudice."

"But well-known public figures and the public itself, he can't touch. He can't risk antagonizing the masses until the vote is done." Ren responded thoughtfully. Suddenly he said, "It's still a couple hours until the vote. How many of the Diet members have yet to arrive?"

"79 of the Councillors and 124 of the Representatives," Yashiro read off one of the other techie's screens.

Lory raised an eyebrow. "What did you have in mind?"

"You're not going to like it." Ren grimaced and called out to one of the techies, "Can you put Agent Ki on a secured line?"

As the tech support nodded the affirmative and the call began to go through, both Lory and Yashiro's eyes widened as they started to catch up with Ren's plan.

"You're right," Yashiro muttered.

"We don't like it," Lory groaned and massaged his temples. "But it might just buy us enough time to save Mogami-kun."

Kijima's face blipped onto the main screen, warped around the edges from the fisheye lens of his comm watch. He blinked in surprise at the gathering of people in the Command Post before the techie zoomed the camera in on Ren's face.

"Yo, Agent T," Kijima said with a jaunty wave. "The President put you back on active duty?"

Ignoring his colleague's backhanded comment, Ren asked, "Agent Ki, you're at your post right now?"

On screen, Kijima puffed his cheeks out, pouting at Ren's subtle implication that he was neglecting his field duties. "Of course!"

"Good. I need you to put Fuwa and Nanokura-san on the line."

The other agent blinked in confusion. "Fuwa and Nanokura? What do you need with those two?"

Ren's grim, "You'll see," ended up being drowned out by a shout on the other line.

"Is it that Bastard?" Fuwa Sho's voice rang out over the speaker. His blonde hair appeared in the frame as he came up behind Kijima. The heir demanded, "What does the hell does he want? Has he found Kyoko yet?"

"Fuwa," Ren greeted flatly as Kijima handed the watch over.

"Tsuruga-Bastard," Sho returned with narrowed eyes. "If you haven't gotten Kyoko back yet, why the hell are we talking?"

"We know where she is right now," Ren shared, trying to mentally shake off the stab of guilt that Sho was right. He _should_ have Kyoko back by now. Actually, he should have never let her get taken away in the first place. He stared up at the main monitor, dreading what he was about to say. "As much as it pains me to admit it, we need your help to get her back…" Ren dropped his gaze and muttered, " _I_ need your help."

Heaving a heavy sigh, Ren raised his eyes back to the screen, determined to face his past mistakes and overcome them. "I screwed up, and now I need your help to save her. To save Japan."

On screen, Sho was silent, a speechless mixture of perplexed and thoughtful.

Ren sighed. "Fuwa… Come on."

"Fine," Sho finally managed. He added with narrowed eyes. "But for Kyoko. Not for you…"

"Thank you!" Ren enthused, not caring about the brilliant smile he accidentally let loose. "Now, we are going to need you and Nanokura-san to–"

"As if!" another voice shrilled, "As if Mimori is going to help that dumb-stupid-ugly peasant!"

Slightly off-screen, a shorter, dark-haired head bobbled angrily. Sho turned to look down at Mimori. Ren closed his eyes, frowning. The plan wasn't going to work if Mimori wasn't on board.

Abruptly, the screen darkened, and when Sho spoke next, his voice was dampened as if he'd turned the other way and was muffling the comm link with his hand. "I'll accept your father's offer."

"Huh?" Mimori squeaked.

"To make our engagement official. I'll sign the contract."

Ren's eyes widened.

"Really? Kya~! Sho-chan, I _knew_ you were just playing hard to get!"

There was a sound like ' _Oof'_ as if someone had just been tackled by an overly-excited heiress.

"Ok." The screen brightened again, whiting out before the colors of Sho and Mimori faded back as the watch's camera adjusted. Sho was straining, trying to get out of the stranglehold Mimori had on his neck. "We're in."

"Fuwa…" Ren hazarded.

"I said, we're in," Sho growled, finally extricating himself with a weary sigh as Mimori dashed off to presumably gush on social media about their engagement. Sho's eyes dipped down, troubled, before rising back up to glare at the screen defiantly. "It's fine."

"Thank you," Ren said. He truly meant it.

The blonde grumbled, "Yeah, yeah. So what's this brilliant plan of yours?"

As Ren explained his plan to the Fuwa heir, Yashiro had picked up a phone given to him by one of the other tech supports. After agreeing a couple of times, he turned to Agent T.

"Ren," Yashiro called, "Amamiya-san is in the hangar waiting for you. Car is stocked with your gear, and ready to go."

Ren called over his shoulder, "And Kotonami-san?"

"Going to rendezvous with you on-scene."

Agent T turned back to the screen, facing Sho. Ren gave his rival a small smile. "Thank you, Fuwa. We will definitely bring her back."

"Yeah. Whatever," Sho huffed, turning up his nose.

"Have to go." Ren reached toward the tech's desk to terminate the connection, but before he could click the button, the heir's voice sounded out over the line.

"Hey, Tsuruga-bastard."

Agent T glanced up at the screen, brow raised. "Yes?"

"You better give him hell for taking her," Sho growled, his gaze fiery.

Ren grinned, determined. "Of course."

 **-x-**

Ito Himawari had never really wanted to get into the yakuza business. She had always wanted to become a divorced housewife or the owner of a small, rural non-franchise convenience store. She would own two cats and sit along a riverbank after work before returning to her cramped studio apartment at night.

Then her sophomore year of high school, she had accidentally knocked out the school's banchou. She'd always been the clumsy sort. But the misunderstandings had escalated quickly, and soon enough she'd found herself with a dozen underlings and the title of the school's new banchou. One thing had led to another, and when she accepted a job offer from that nice-looking man at her graduation with all the tattoos, who could have known that he'd turn out to be a member of the yakuza?

Soon after she'd joined however, the Inugawa-kai had come under the influence of this Delta guy, and Ito Himawari found herself loaned out. And lucky her! She had the cushy job of guarding Delta's prisoners. It wasn't a convenience store, but it was still pretty nice.

As she gathered the dishes for Kyoko-san's lunch onto a tray, Himawari hummed the catchy opening of the anime she'd started watching the night before. However, she couldn't quite remember the tune, so she made it up as she went. Her guard partner Ueda-san, another loaner from the Inugawa-kai, glanced up at her nervously. Last time she'd hummed to herself, he had hesitantly asked her if she was reciting Buddhist funeral chants. He was so silly, always joking.

Finished collecting everything onto the tray, Himawari adjusted her dark green uniform cap over her short black hair, picked up the tray, and announced, "I'm off, yeah!" to a now eager-looking Ueda. He always seemed so happy when she left to give the prisoner her meals. Himawari assumed that it must've been the upbeat way that she waved good-bye as she left him alone.

Still humming to herself, Himawari locked the guard room behind her, punched the code in for the hallway, and after the door wooshed open, she tramped down the ramp to Kyoko-san's room.

Himawari glanced around the cell, her dark brown eyes examining the visible area. Kyoko-san was nowhere in sight, but the guard guessed that she was behind the wall leading to the toilet area. Not wanting to disturb her, Himawari quietly let herself in and set the tray down on the cot. She wanted to talk with Kyoko-san – talking with Kyoko-san was almost as fun as talking with Ueda-san – but even Himawari knew that you shouldn't bother a girl during her time on the toilet. It was just bad manners.

As Himawari was about to turn her key in the lock, she heard a loud yelp from behind the wall barrier and the sound of water splashing on the floor.

"Kyoko-san? Are you ok?" Himawari called hesitantly.

Another squawk sounded from behind the wall, and a moment later, Kyoko's voice called out with a nervous laugh, "O-Oh! Ito-san! I didn't realize you were here!"

"Sorry, Kyoko-san. I didn't want to interrupt you while you were… y'know…"

"Um… Actually, I appear to need some help," Kyoko stated haltingly, her tone indicating that she was mortifyingly embarrassed. A small hand poked out from behind the wall and waved. Kyoko let out a small sheepish laugh, "The toilet seems to be overflowing…"

"Overflowing…?" Himawari blinked her dark eyes and cocked her head to the side, thinking, then her mouth made a wide 'O' as her brain connected the dots. No wonder Kyoko-san was so embarrassed to ask for help! Himawari hurried around the corner, wondering where they kept the plunger in this place.

For a good fifteen seconds, shouts and muffled thuds sounded throughout the room, muted from behind the concrete wall.

Finally, there was prolonged silence.

The figure of a girl stepped out from behind the barrier and waved vigorously at the CCTV camera before glancing behind her at the unconscious body on the floor. Straightening the green uniform around her waist, the young woman murmured a genuine, "Sorry…"

Behind her, Himawari heard loud footfalls as Ueda, who had presumably gotten her signal, sprinted down the ramp to the cell. He threw the cell door open, his hand wary on his sidearm. He called out, "Ito!"

Himawari turned, still shell-shocked as she tried to straighten her askew green guard's cap.

"Ito, what the hell happened?" Ueda jogged over to his partner, glancing at her briefly before crouching to examine their prisoner lying knocked out on the floor. The girl was lying slumped against the toilet with her long, blonde hair covering her face.

Rubbing her arms up and down, Himawari ducked her head, grimacing. "I-I don't know! She tried to attack me, so I knocked her out, yeah?"

Ueda raised a brow before barking a short laugh, "So those rumors about you being a banchou were true after all, eh?"

Satisfied in his inspection of the unconscious prisoner, Ueda rose and slapped her hard on the back before exiting the cell. "I always thought you were just some plain, boring girl. Guess I was wrong!"

Himawari followed shakily on his heels. As she shut the cell door behind her and locked it, the young woman mouthed one last 'sorry' to her fallen friend.

"Hey Ito, you coming?" Ueda called down the hall.

Himawari nestled her cap farther down to cover her auburn hair and hid a small smile, her amber eyes flashing.

"I'll be right there, yeah!"

 **-x-**

On the bottom floor of LME headquarters, still locked in his cell, Reino heaved a great sigh and rose slowly from his cot. He reached under his bed to grasp the small glass vial he had secreted there so many days before.

Unceremoniously, he began banging on the door to his cell.

Two blue-suited guards rushed down the corridor and stopped in front of him, only a few widely-spaced metal bars separating him from them. One stepped forward, scowling.

"Cut that out, you creepy bastard. What the hell do you want?"

Reino canted his head to the side and spoke in his bored monotone. "I just wanted to let you two protozoans know that despite your stellar and exemplary attempts to detain me, I have stolen your keys."

Shocked and dismayed, both guard's hands immediately flew to their belts only to have confusion and then rage replace the emotions on their faces as they turned back to the captive assassin.

"The hell are you talking about, you occult bastard?" The other guard sneered as he unsnapped the clasp on the back of his belt and dangled a ring of keys triumphantly in front of the bars. "My keys are right here."

"Oh? Is that right?" Reino calmly and slowly began tying a piece of cloth ripped from his bed sheet over his nose and mouth. He gave a bored smirk from behind the makeshift mask. "Actually, I was referring to the future…"

As fast as a viper, the Vie Ghoul leader stuck his hand out through the bars and popped the rubber stopper off the top of the glass vial. The colorless, odorless liquid at the bottom of the tube instantly vaporized upon contact with air, sending a dose of a carefully concocted chemical straight into the lungs of both unsuspecting guards who had handily inhaled in surprise at Reino's sudden movement.

Two bodies thumped unconscious to the floor.

Casually, Reino withdrew his hand, recapped the vial, and held it up to the light, shaking it slightly. Still a bit left. Satisfied, the Vie Ghoul leader reached under the bars to grasp the keys that the guard had dropped on the floor and unlocked the exit to his cell. As the rusty door swung open with a creaking protest, Reino sauntered through and cracked his head from side to side.

Stepping over the guards' bodies, the assassin tossed the vial up and caught it in his other hand before allowing himself a small smile.

"It's finally time…"

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Japanese Notes**

Obento – Japanese boxed lunch

Banchou – The leader of a band of juvenile delinquents

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG**

Misherukuro – Thanks for reviewing!

J Luc Pitard – Thanks for pointing that out! I had always considered Ren to be more of a foil for Delta than Lory, but you're right in that I have been neglecting the President in developing his competency a bit. That will change veeeery shortly. ;) I'm really glad that you found Saena to be sympathetic! I think in the manga, she's not supposed to be a 100% b*tch like a lot of fanfics represent her, so I've tried to emulate a more realistic Saena here. Glad I've been able to pull it off so far! Thanks for reviewing! Looking forward to more of your input!

Tabbykatroses – I read Tokyo Crazy Paradise maybe 5 years ago and I cannot for the life of me remember anything other than the epic last battle and the fact that I really liked the other guy in the love triangle more than the guy she ended up with haha. I'll have to reread it soon!

Guest – Haha, thanks! I posted a week earlier than last time so hopefully this fills your craving!

brennakai – Good thing Kimiko didn't succeed! Looks like Kimiko's rant had the opposite effect – instead of convincing Kyoko that Ren doesn't love her, she actually got convinced that Ren DOES have feelings for her!

MWEH – Same here, I really enjoy our conversations about the new SB chapters! Have you tried joining the SkipBeat fan page on Facebook? There are a TON of people who discuss theories and chapters on there. It's my secret, guilty, nerdy pleasure :3 I LOLed at Kyoko's response to the height difference; but honestly as a medical professional, getting dropped off a 3 story balcony onto the wrong part of her body (ie, her head) could actually kill her, so… Erika really got the save there! As for this past chapter, I'm kind of bummed that Kanae didn't end up getting the Chidori part, but I'm curious to see what other kind of character she'll play (especially because she was so concerned about accepting the part). Thanks for reading and reviewing MWEH!

H-Nala – Thanks! I really enjoyed writing the Delta-Saena scene!

Erza – I totally LOLed in a café when I read your "Ren looked so hella fine" comment. And yes, both our hero and heroine are dense idiots! But that's why we love them so much :3 As for Ren's kiss, I think that he just retreated into his "Tsuruga Ren" character to be able to respond with so much grace and calm. "Tsuruga Ren" is a consummate gentleman, after all, and the best response we could really expect of him would be mild surprise and ultimately apathy. If he got angry or disgusted, that wouldn't have been in character as "Ren". But TBH, I think that's why he took a shower at the end of this most recent chapter. Gotta wash that nasty, crazy lady's touch off of him! Hahaha Thanks as always Erza!

Guineapigs1 – Actually, Kimiko wasn't lying – that actually was her backstory! She holds a grudge against Ren because she feels like she was led on by his acting, so she's trying to convince Kyoko that Ren doesn't love her (but actually has the opposite effect!). I'm so glad that in canon, Erika totally destroyed Kimiko and her acting career. And, we ARE in the last arc of this story! Final showdown is coming sooooon! (Well, maybe 6-7 more chapters) Thanks for reviewing Guineapigs1!

 **-x-**

 **Please don't forget to review, fave, and follow! Thank you loyal readers!**


	39. Chapter 39

Hello loyal readers!

Long time no see! Sorry for the wait! Even though I promised I would focus on Spy Beat, I… might have ended up writing that **Star Wars AU** one shot that had been rattling around in my brain since December, sorry don't hate meeeee! I should be posting it as a **separate story** around mid-August, so if you aren't following me, add me to your Authors Alert list to be notified! :D

(Another one shot about Kyoko and Ren trying to track down a serial killer may also be in the works! But I really will try to focus on Spy Beat from now on!)

Today we have a brief reappearance of our favorite hamster and smuggler, the Vie Ghoul up to no good per usual, Mimori on social media, and the LME agents infiltrating the Henshin hideout! **Enjoy and please don't forget to leave a review, fave, or follow! They really mean the world to me and keep me motivated to write!**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH39**

 **\- Two hours and twenty-two minutes until revote -**

Really, Kyoko had hoped to get at least half an hour before the alarm was tripped. After wandering the monotonous tiled hallways of the Henshin headquarters while pretending like she _did_ know where she was going and pretending like she _didn't_ just knock out two members of the yakuza, Kyoko had finally decided her best bet was to change disguises again.

Thus, twenty minutes after her great escape, she found herself in a random closet, cramped on all sides by metal shelves with large jugs of cleaning supplies and towels. She was trying to hastily yet quietly discard Ito-san's green guard uniform for a thick grey jumpsuit she'd found in the closet when the loudspeaker over the door squawked to life.

"Attention all Henshin operatives. Attention all Henshin operatives," a smooth female voice sounded over the intercom, "A prisoner has escaped. I repeat, a prisoner has escaped."

Startled and caught with one leg in the jumpsuit and one leg out, Kyoko couldn't hold back a decidedly unladylike squeal as she tumbled noisily into a pile of mops and buckets stacked haphazardly on the closet floor.

"Please refer to your handheld units for a photograph of the prisoner," the woman continued, sounding more as if she belonged announcing train stations on the JR than broadcasting the escape of a fugitive. "The prisoner must be captured alive. I repeat, the prisoner must be captured alive. Thank you."

Grumbling a slew of curses aimed at Delta (and Shotaro just for good measure) as she picked herself up off the floor, Kyoko hurriedly finished shoving her arms into the jumpsuit as she reached for Ito-san's handheld device.

As she zipped up the uniform, a picture of herself in her Setsu wig and outfit blipped onto the screen. Underneath in bolded letters, Kyoko read the description, 'May have a different hair color. May be dressed in green guard uniform. Prisoner is considered unarmed but extremely dangerous. MUST CAPTURE ALIVE.'

"'Unarmed but extremely dangerous,'" Agent M read to herself again, aloud this time. A smirk curled onto her lips as a string of self-satisfied chuckles escaped her. They thought she was 'extremely dangerous'! Despite the harrowing circumstances, Kyoko couldn't help but feel quite pleased with herself. Her enemy thought that she – Mogami Kyoko, only a junior agent – was a legitimate threat!

Still chuckling smugly, Kyoko moved to turn and hide her guard uniform under a shelf when a small, wheeled cleaning cart caught her foot and she promptly shot forward, dumping her all over again on the floor.

Pouting, the now-humbled Agent M huffed a stray piece of auburn hair out of her eyes as she lie, limbs entangled in mop handles and buckets. She didn't feel quite so smug or dangerous now.

And that was when the door to the closet flew open, blinding her with a sudden flash of light.

"Got you!"

"AHH!"

Three shouts – one terrified and two surprised – echoed in the claustrophobic space. Then there was silence. When no hands reached down to grab her and throw her back in her prison cell, Kyoko raised an arm to block out the light from the hall.

Out in the corridor stood two figures, one was miming having a panic attack and a heart attack simultaneously while the other was just whacking the girl on the back, unpityingly.

"Why'd you have to do that, Murasame-kun?" whined the shorter figure as she clutched her chest. "You scared her, and then she screamed, and then she scared us, and than I screamed, and now I'm going to pass out and dieee~!"

'Murasame…?'

"Hai, hai," the taller figure groused, his long dark hair coming into focus as Kyoko's eyes adjusted to the light outside the closet. "You're awfully chatty for someone who's about to die, Manaka-chan…"

'Manaka…!'

"Oi! You!"

Blinking rapidly, Kyoko flew out of her thoughts and scrambled to her feet as Murasame Taira, the Henshin smuggler, turned to snarl at her. He tossed his wavy hair out of his eyes as he ignored the petite surveillance expert staggering about the hall behind him. His dark eyes locked onto Kyoko's in a fierce glare. A shock of fear ran down the LME agent's spine.

Of all the people to run into…

"You're bein' awfully noisy in there," Murasame growled as he crossed his arms over his chest. He jutted his chin out as a gesture of pointing. "And what the hell is _that_?"

Kyoko glanced down, following his indication. In her right hand, still clutched amidst the panic of the situation, was the sleeve of the green guard's uniform.

'Unarmed but extremely dangerous' Agent M almost screamed in terror again.

"I – y-you – this–!" Kyoko babbled out smoothly. The smuggler's eyes just narrowed. "W-What I mean to say is–!"

"Geez, Tau-kun!" Apparently recovered from her recent brush with death, Manaka smacked her flatmate on the shoulder. "You're so cold! I'm over here dying and you don't even care! And why are you bothering the janitor? Aren't we already running late for the big meeting?"

'Janitor…?' Kyoko glanced down at her uniform. Sure enough, a nametag pronouncing her as "Yamada Hanako, Cleaning Attendant" was embroidered on her upper right chest.

Fortunately, Murasame was distracted, trying to explain his suspicions to Manaka. By the time Kyoko looked up again, he was finishing, "Also, Omicron, doesn't she remind you of someone? She looks familiar…"

To emphasize his point, Tau stepped forward and leaned in, scrutinizing Kyoko. Manaka mimicked his actions, tipping her head to the side, lips pursed in a thoughtful pout.

"I guess…?" The surveillance specialist mused, voice pitching higher with doubt. "But she seems much more… plain, doesn't she?"

Whether by instinct or subconscious calculation, Kyoko had a moment of clarity. A sweet, simple smile brushed over her lips as she bowed a sharp thirty degrees from the waist at the duo.

"My deepest apologies, operatives," Maid-Kyoko intoned pleasantly as she rose and swiftly folded the green guard uniform with a deft flick of her hands. "I had just received the announcement about the escaped prisoner when I found this uniform."

Two more quick motions and the edges of the uniform top and bottom were smartly creased, neat and tidy.

"I was on my way to Director Konoe's office to turn in this evidence. However, I was surprised by your sudden appearance." She proffered the crisply folded top to Tau with a bright but empty servile smile. "Please excuse my indiscretion. If you would prefer, you can turn it in to Director Konoe yourself."

"Uh…Ah…" Murasame accepted the uniform, staring at it like a man who expects to be handed a Christmas present but is instead given a bag of slugs – baffled, mystified, and thoroughly displeased at this sudden turn of events.

As if voicing aloud his inner thoughts, Omicron leaned away and shook her head vigorously from side to side. "No way! You're totally hallucinating, Tau-kun. This girl is so different!"

Glancing back and forth between the uniform in his hands and the unfailing professional smile of the girl before him, Murasame finally slowly nodded his head to himself as if trying to mentally catch up with this unexpected development. Without even thanking the young janitor girl, Murasame – like a sleep-walker – turned on his heel and staggered away down the hall.

Over Manaka's reprimands that his fruitless delay would cause them to be late to the meeting, Kyoko heard the smuggler muttering to himself, "No way it could've been her… But for a second there… Am I going crazy?"

After what seemed like an eternity, the duo turned the corner down the hall, and Agent M released a sigh of relief. The adrenaline sidelined her thoughts, causing her gaze to wander down to her hands – hands that had served hundreds of superiors and had folded mountains of laundry and had been trained to never falter in their polite demeanor no matter the pressure. Hands that had been molded by the Fuwa family for the benefit of one family member in particular…

' _Kyoko means nothing to me… If she were snatched, no one would care about such a plain, boring girl.'_

Well, her plain, boring side had just saved her hide. Did this mean that she had _that guy_ to thank?

Catching herself brooding on dangerous thoughts, Kyoko shook her head and ducked back into the closet, loading up one of the small, wheeled carts with cleaning supplies. Forcing herself, she turned her mind away from confusing thoughts and toward escape.

Noting the last piece of her disguise, Kyoko snagged a gray cap off one of the shelves. As she tugged it low to cover her eyes, she murmured to herself, "Alright. Wait for me, Tsuruga-san…"

 **-x-**

Reino sighed again. He had hoped that his escape from the LME unit's basement would be less conspicuous. After all, his preferred M.O. usually involved disappearing silently into the night, the deceased bodies only discovered in the exposing light of the day. It evoked an air of mystery and fear that had kept him employed at the top of his field for years.

He also preferred to kill his victims, not merely render them unconscious. People who fainted often had a nasty tendency of waking up at inopportune times and raising the alarm. But, damn that LME doctor – he didn't keep any medicines within reach that could be distilled down into a poison that would harm the body beyond a brief loss of consciousness.

Therefore, even though it was highly distasteful to have to leave this unsightly trail of fainted bodies in his wake as he made his way to the upper levels of the LME HQ, it was unavoidable. Reino's lips twitched into a grimace of annoyance as he stuck his hand around the corner, directly under the nose of an unsuspecting guard. Rho stepped around the corner and watched, in extreme displeasure as the guard's eyes rolled up into his sockets as he crumpled to the floor. The assassin sighed, disappointed.

Not nearly enough shut down of internal organs for his taste. Miroku was never going to let him live down this mess.

Speaking of Miroku… Reino sauntered over to the console the guard had been attending. The assassin closed his eyes and waved a mystical hand over the console, coming to a stop over one button in particular that he pressed. A loud _BEEP_ sounded as a nearby metal door slid open.

Immediately a group of men leapt through the door, assault weapons leveled. Then a tall, thin man with long blonde hair caught sight of the Vie Ghoul leader and lowered his rifle.

"Rho!" Miroku's face brightened, but then he stopped, puzzled. "What's with this mess?"

"I had to make do," Reino intoned, his voice only taking a slight edge as evidence that he was more annoyed and less bored than he let on, "As one is want to do while in captivity. Now, can we please get started?"

"Thought you'd never ask." Mu grinned and tossed a heavy, black gun and a small in-ear communications implant at his leader.

Snatching the gun out of the air and screwing the device into his ear, Reino sighed again. Even more messy. He preferred the elegance of poison to these trashy weapons… Where was the mystery? Where was the aura of dread? Where was the cloak and dagger in assassination?

Still… orders were orders…

"Let's get this over with," the assassin group's leader sighed, clearly bored, and cracked the slide back on his pistol. He was thoroughly not going to enjoy himself.

 **-x-**

"Oi, Pocchiri!" Sho's voice carried from the dressing room to the connecting lobby. "We don't have time for this!"

In the middle of trying to snap the perfect selfie, Mimori lowered her cellphone and shifted in her cushy leather chair. She pouted at the dressing room door but grinned when she heard her stylist reprimand Sho-chan in heavily accented Japanese.

"I know what I'm doing, Sho-chan," Mimori called sweetly across the room. The model turned back to her phone, trying again different angles for her selfie. "It's _al~ways_ about appearances in Show Biz. And Friedrich-san is the best of the best."

"Well, 'Friedrich-san' could _try_ to at least hurry up! We've got to get to the Diet building!"

Mimori snapped a shot and nodded to herself, scrolling through her filters to select the right one. She hollered back absentmindedly, "Yeah, right. It's probably best that you don't move right now, Sho-chan. You might accidentally–"

A loud yelp as if a young man had been stuck in some unmentionable place by a fabric pin echoed through the waiting room. An answering voice cursed loudly in German. Mimori continued typing on her phone. "Never mind!"

Scrolling through her post one last time, Mimori re-read it, adjusted some emojis, and then tapped "Done".

While her new official fiancé continued to gripe in the dressing room, Mimori squiggled in her chair in excitement, watching as the reactions and comments flooded in from her fans.

" _Hello Mimori-Fam! *star emoji* I know I've been away from you all for a loooooong time *crying emoji*, but it was because I was getting a BIG surprise ready for you! *heart emoji* Tell all your friends! Mimori is going to have a SUUUPER AWESOME concert *music note emoji* with a special guest *shocked face emoji* in 30 minutes by the Diet building~! See you all there~! *heart emoji x 3*"_

 **-x-**

"Take the next left," Yashiro directed over the comm link.

Without hesitating, Ren swiveled left down the next hall, his gun barrel raised. Twitching the sights up, down, right, and then left, he continued forward at a steady pace, eyes still peeled for trouble. He heard Chiori enter the hallway after him, her weapon similarly checking in all directions, before Kanae finally followed, her steps awkward as she walked sideways, looking back and covering the rear.

The fiber optic hacking-wire they had wrapped around a bundle of camera cables at the entrance allowed the entire tech support team in the Command Post access to the Henshin hideout's security camera feed. Additionally, Yashiro assured them, the wire also allowed the techs to hack into and loop the feed to prevent Henshin's security from noticing the agents on the cameras. However, this was not an excuse for a lack of vigilance. Because as a field agent, one never knew if danger was lurking just around–

"Two guards ahead of you are going to turn down your hallway in 10 seconds," Yashiro barked urgently. "There's a clear room five meters ahead on your right."

Before the techie had even finished speaking, the trio had picked up their pace, arriving quickly at the door. As Yashiro counted down from ten, Ren yanked on the knob and drove into the room first, gun raised. His eyes flit to every corner of the cluttered storage room to ensure there were no occupants.

"Clear," he muttered. Behind him, he heard Agent A follow him in and finally, Agent K quietly shut the door behind them.

Not a moment too soon.

A heartbeat after Kanae had closed the door, the three agents heard the tramping of boots and loud laughter as two guards walked down the corridor. Their conversation swelled then faded as they passed the door and continued, oblivious, down the hall.

All the LME agents huffed a small sigh. That was close.

"Sorry," the tech support was murmuring over their comm links. "It seems that our blueprint for the building is outdated after all, and Henshin's camera system is split into multiple groupings."

"Well, it looks like we found where your cameras and blueprints don't reach," Kanae grumbled, slightly peeved.

Yashiro laughed sheepishly as Ren pointed out, "We were forewarned of the possibility of flying blind here."

Chiori still muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Stupid strategy team. You had one job…"

"Well," Yukihito said as he cleared his throat, "Our camera feed confirms the blueprint, showing that there's a 4-way intersection of two hallways up ahead. The south hall leads back the way you came. It is unconfirmed where the north, east, and west halls lead. In order to scope those areas out, we will have to find additional camera cords to tap into."

"So we're going to have to find camera feeds in each of those sections if we want to be able to find Kyoko?" Kanae mused.

"Yes."

Anxiety for Kyoko weighing down his gut, Ren shook his head. "That's going to take too long. We should split up."

Kanae nodded. "One direction for each person."

"Yes, that would seem like the most efficient–" Yashiro's voice broke off suddenly. In the background, Ren could hear the HQ's warning sirens begin to blare.

"Yashiro," Agent T barked, "What's going on?"

As if in reply, the trio of agents could hear an automated voice rhythmically repeating in time with the whoops of the siren, "Intruders on Level 4. Intruders on Level 4."

Ren heard some shouting in the background as the tech support staff scrambled on their computers to locate the intruders on the LME's internal cameras. Yashiro mumbled a string of curses under his breath – rare for him – and Ren's eyes widened. The last time he'd heard his friend curse was during the Osaka Debacle. The situation must've been extremely bad right now.

"It's that creep Reino!" Yukihito finally reported to the agents. "He somehow got loose and now he's here with what looks like the entire Vie Ghoul."

Past his sinking heart and in the background, Ren could hear President Takarada barking orders – "Tell all the agents to stand down and retreat. Only lay cover fire for evacuation. Do _not_ engage. There is no way we can beat them in a fire fight!"

Another techie yelled out, alarmed, "President, they appear to be headed for the data server room!"

Ren and Kanae sucked in a sharp breath. This was very bad. Confused, Chiori looked back and forth between the two.

"What the big deal?" The junior agent asked, frowning. "It's just some computers, right? They're encrypted anyway."

Kanae shook her head, her scowl deepening. "You're new, Amamiya-san. You probably didn't know, but the servers hold information on every single undercover operative in the LME unit."

"Names, ages, photos," Ren listed off grimly, "Aliases, deployment locations, mission goals–"

"So if the Vie Ghoul manage to get past the encryption on the servers…" Chiori mused, her eyes growing wide with fear. "They would be able to expose all our agents?"

Deeply troubled, Ren nodded. "Tokyo, Osaka, Russia, America, China, Korea – All of them would undoubtedly be captured, tortured, and killed by the countries and criminal organizations they are infiltrating."

"That is, if Delta decides to outright release the information," Kanae hazarded, thinking. "If he uses it to blackmail the LME unit and the PSIA…"

"No one will be able to oppose him once he gains control of the government…" Chiori finished, hands clenching her weapon tighter. A gloom settled over the group at the severity of the situation. Agent A glanced uncertainly between the two senior operatives. "Wh-What should we do?"

Over the comm link, Yashiro's voice cut through the heavy air, "But, President, wait!"

There was an indistinct shout of a reply, then Yashiro groaned over the line. Ren could imagine him clutching his forehead in frustration.

"Yashiro-san," Agent T prompted. "What's going on?"

The techie sighed mightily. "The President dashed off to take care of the Vie Ghoul single-handedly. He ordered you all to keep going to get Agent M."

Ren exchanged worried glances with the two LoveMe girls. The last time the President had been in the field was… how long ago?

"He'll be fine," Ren suggested, trying to sound more convinced than he felt. "He knows what he's doing."

"If the President is fast," Yashiro pointed out, the sound of his hands flying over the keyboard in the background. "We might be able to stop them in time before they crack the encryption."

As if sensing the tension in the silence across the line, Yashiro said sternly, "Stop worrying about us and focus on your own mission. There are two layers to the server and a booby-trap, so that should slow the Vie Ghoul down. Anyway, just keep going. That next patrol is due in about 57 seconds."

"Right," Kanae replied, glancing up at her two teammates. She put her finger to her lips, thinking, then pointed to herself. "West."

She pointed to Chiori. "North."

And finally she pointed to Ren. "East."

Ren nodded. "Meet back here in thirty minutes. Sync your watches."

The three agents huddled together and at the same moment, pressed the timer button on their comm watches. Sharing determined looks, the trio exited the room.

"Good luck," Ren murmured to them as they reached the intersection and dispersed. He watched the two girls trot down their respective halls before turning to his own entrance.

"I'm coming, Kyoko. Hold on."

* * *

 **-x-**

 **Japanese Notes:**

The JR (Japan Rail) is the main subway/train company that services Tokyo.

Yamada Hanako is kind of like the Japanese version of "Jane Doe" haha. Talk about a plain name!

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG**

 **MWEH** – Yeah admittedly one or two of the most consistent posters is mainly Spanish-speaking, but nowadays they usually post pictures more than big blocks of Spanish text. And let's face it, a cute drawing of Ren and Kyoko works in any language ;) As for this month's chapter, I'm definitely much more satisfied because after months and months of waiting (has it been over a year?), Ren and Kyoko are FINALLY talking with each other face to face! Gyah! I hope Yashiro is able to disappear soon into their little picnic so it ends up being just Ren and Kyoko alone~! Hehehe… Thanks for reviewing again MWEH!

 **J Luc Pitard** – LOL, I honestly can't believe Lory hasn't suggested in the manga that Ren belongs in the LoveMe group yet. The man was formerly incapable of love, incapable of acting out love, had never been in love before, and considered himself unworthy of love… Sounds like a prime LoveMe member to me! Yesss, the LoveMe girls (plus Ren) are definitely going to throw Delta's plans for a loop :3 And as for Delta letting Kyoko keep her wig.. let's just say there was a purpose behind it! Hehe

 **Brennakai** – Thanks for reviewing as always!

 **Guineapigs1** – It's quite sharp of you to pick up on the timing of the homing beacon ping. Yes, admittedly Kyoko had not escaped at that point so it was not her that sent the signal to the LME unit. So who was it~? ;) Thanks Guineapigs1! It's so encouraging to hear that someone is enjoying my writing!

 **Misherukuro** – Thanks for reviewing! It's reviews like yours that make me excited to write, so thanks for taking the time to leave one! :D

 **-x-**

 **Please don't forget to review, fave, or follow! It keeps me motivated amidst work and adulting! Hehe 3 See you in August and don't forget to check out the One Shot that's going to be posted mid-August!**


	40. Chapter 40

Hello loyal readers!

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! Time flies when you're working.

Before we get into any more chapter notes, I want to announce that I'm posting the first story in a Skip Beat one-shot series entitled ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE. This series will be a collection of one/two-shots focusing on mostly AU RenxKyoko fics. So if you're craving more Skip Beat goodness after reading this chapter, go check it out! Thanks fam! *hearts*

Today, we have a LONG chapter: Lory puts on a show, the Vie Ghoul are terrified, Yashiro's power is made manifest, Maria-ex-machina saves the day, and our two favorite agents finally reunite!

Thanks for being so patient! Don't forget to review, fave, and alert! (We are almost to 100 faves, and I'M SO EXCITED!)

See y'all in a month!

 **-x-**

 **CH40**

 **\- 1:17 until revote -**

"Hurry up, Kiyora," Miroku hissed. As much as he hated to admit it, Mu was on edge. Sure, at first there was slight resistance getting to the LME's server room, but after the bulk of the LME agents had retreated, it was such a smooth operation that it was making Mu nervous. Things never went this easily in their line of work, and if they did, there was always a catch.

Laptop open, Kiyora crouched on the tile floor amid a tangle of wires. Like a mess of unruly vines, the wires snaked back to one of the room's many tall, metal server banks. Fingers flying over his keyboard, the Vie Ghoul's techno-assassin shot Mu a nasty glare. "You telling me to hurry up every fifteen seconds isn't exactly helping."

Instead of answering and wasting more time, Miroku ground his teeth and did another quick walk around of the room's perimeter. Each of the room's four walls were lined back to front with large computer servers and several rows of servers inside the interior of the room itself. Each bank was two heads taller than the lanky assassin and blinking with random lights.

Other than the main door that Dasuku and Shizuru were guarding, there was no other way in or out… Simple. But with Reino suddenly deciding he wanted to disappear off into the LME HQ – following some spiritual energy or something – Miroku felt even more jumpy about the whole situation.

"Almost in," Kiyora muttered, mostly to himself.

Trying not to hover, the Vie Ghoul's co-founder supposed that, in all fairness, hacking into a databank that housed the identities of hundreds of super secret government espionage agents who were not supposed to even exist was going to be a whole lot more difficult for Kiyora than cracking into some old millionaire's electronically-controlled pacemaker for a hit.

"Dasu, Shizu," Miroku barked into his earpiece. "Check-in."

"Door is clear," Dasuku reported from just outside the room, clearly bored.

"Hall is clear," Shizuru replied, his alert voice slightly higher pitched than the monotonous Dasuku.

"I'm in!" Kiyora exclaimed, his fingers still typing furiously. "Damn this thing was tough. But I wonder why they only had one layer of encryption–?"

 _Thump._ If it hadn't been for his years and years of experience in the field as well as his current heightened sense of awareness, Miroku wouldn't have heard it at all. Then another soft thump. Miroku ignored his teammate babbling on about levels of security. His hand strayed to rest on the handle of his sheathed katana as he started forward slowly, head cocked, listening.

Another two thumps. Something that sounded like a muffled yelp.

Instantly at attention, Miroku's hand flew to his ear as he drew his weapon with a metallic _shnek_. "Dasu, Shizu. Report."

"Door is still clear, boss," Dasuku noted wearily from his post.

There was a pause.

"Shizu!" Mu barked.

"Ah, um, ahem. Hall is still clear." Shizu's voice finally came over the earpiece. Miroku let out a sigh of relief. But Shizu was continuing. "But for some reason, the lights have gone out in the hallway. I'm going to investigate. Dasu, can you back me up?"

"Copy that, Shizu," Dasuku noted dully.

Per protocol, Miroku began to move up to cover Dasuku's post at the door. Wielding his katana in a lowered ready stance, Mu saw the team's firearms specialist flick on the flashlight above his assault rifle and shuffle through the door, down the hall. Miroku peeked out into the hallway, but it seemed that Shizuru was correct. The lights at the end of the hall had indeed cut out.

"Shizu?" Dasuku wandered farther into the inky darkness until Miroku could no longer see him. The man's bobbing flashlight seemed to get swallowed up in the dark, reflecting more and more dimly as Dasuku walked away. "Shizu?"

Mu tried to squint and crane his neck, but the blackness was so unnaturally thick that there was nothing he could see. His hand nervously strayed to the radio's button in his ear, but he hesitated, listening.

A muffled exchange of voices… Then silence…

Suddenly, there was a blood-curdling scream. Shocked, Miroku watched Dasu burst out of the darkness, back up the hallway. Flashlight whipping every which way in frantic motions, the normally calm and collected gun-wielder was firing recklessly into the dark behind him, so intent on stopping or slowing whatever lurked in the blackness that he at one point tripped over his own feet, faceplanting into the cement floor, before righting himself and scrambling away.

Eyes peeled, Miroku could see nothing at the end of the hallway. Not Shizuru, or anything else. As Dasu finally made it back to the server room, Mu grabbed him by the scruff of his collar.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Miroku demanded, his long blonde hair flying. "Are you trying to give our position away?"

Nose bloodied from his earlier fall, Dasuku squirmed trying to get away from Mu's iron grip and hide further in the room. "A-A-A m-m-monster!"

"A monster?

"It came out from the dark!"

"What the hell–?"

"It stole Shizuru's voice!" Dasu howled out. Surprised, Miroku released his underling, unsure how to react.

"Are you crazy–?"

" _Kzzzhhhhhht – Mi…ro…ku…"_

The hairs on the nape of Mu's neck stood up.

"– _Da...su…ku – Kiiiiyooooraaaa – Shhhaaashhhh"_

Shizuru's voice – albeit laced with heavy static – echoed hauntingly over the headset. Behind him, Miroku heard Kiyora curse, "What the f—!"

Meanwhile, Dasu merely whimpered and aimed his rifle at the doorway, hands shaking uncontrollably as he backed up, step by shaky step.

 _"I… have… Shizuru – Pssshhhhhttt – And… I'm… coming… for… YOU!"_

The overhead lights just outside the hall exploded in a shower of sparks, dousing what remained of the hallway in the same impenetrable blackness.

Cursing, Miroku tuned his radio to Reino's frequency and tried to hail their leader. "Rho! Calling Rho! Come in Rho! Pick the fuck up!"

Trying to regain control of his wildly beating heart, Miroku saw Dasuku fidgeting with the light on his gun until it lit up again. The assassin tried to point it without much effect into the pitch-black hall. The man's hands were still shaking.

With wild, wide eyes, Dasuku gazed out into the blackness and whimpered back to Miroku, "It's here…"

There was a high-pitched whir in the air, and then Dasuku's hand – Miroku lacked a better word for what happened – exploded. Blood splattered across the doorframe and the firearm specialist screamed in agony, collapsing to the floor and clutching his broken appendage. Panicked, Mu could only think to drag his teammate away from the doorway, further into the room.

Batting away the man's flailing limbs, Miroku examined his fellow assassin's hand. Dasu's trigger finger – all his fingers, actually, were broken in multiple places, bones sticking out from the skin. The impact of the blow – whatever it was – must have sent the blood from the wound flying. Honestly, the effect was more dramatic than the wound appeared, Mu noted from some far corner of his mind.

 _"Kzzzzt – Dasuku… I'm so hungry – pshht – I...WANT…food…_ "

"What the hell is going on, guys?" Kiyora screamed from farther inside the room.

"Just keep uploading!" Miroku yelled back. Where the hell was Reino! There was something weird about this, but the panic was keeping his brain from processing on a logical level.

Not helping the amount of hysteria in the room, Dasuku struggled away from Miroku. Almost weeping now in fear, the burly dark-haired assassin tried to scramble to his feet. "W-We gotta get out of here!"

Mu was opening his mouth to protest when another _zip_ sounded through the air, then a _clunk_ by the door, then an invisible something struck Dasuku square in the forehead. The assassin's head snapped back on impact, smacking the back of his skull against the sturdy metal casing of one of the server banks. Miroku could only watch as Dasuku crumpled to the floor, knocked out cold.

"Dasu!"

Scrambling for cover, Mu quickly grabbed his fallen comrade under the armpits and dragged him behind a metal server bank. While Kiyora shouted in the background, Miroku's slender fingers deftly found his teammate's carotid. Mu sighed in relief. There was still a pulse.

"Mu!" Kiyora was shouting from the back of the room, now barricaded behind a row of servers. "Screw this! Let's bounce! I already uploaded like 27%!"

"No, 100%." Eyes sliding off to the side, Miroku caught sight of something small and black on the floor. "All or nothing."

 _"Kiiiiiyyyooooraaaa~!"_ Now Dasuku's deep baritone came over the line, heavily layered in static. " _You… are… kzzzhhhttt… NEXT!"_

Whimpering, Kiyora swore and banged on his laptop screen. "Hurryuphurryuphurryup–!"

Only half paying attention to the eerie voice over the headset, the blonde assassin knelt and picked up the black object that had caught his eye. The small black cylinder was the same diameter as his pinky finger, but had a flat bottom and a rounded top. The assassin hefted it in his hand – dense, but – he pinched it between his fingers – still flexible.

Then his eyes widened.

 _"Phhhssshhhhttt – Ki…yo…ra…!"_ Dasuku's stoic voice came over the headset again, laced in eerie static. _"Let me feed – pzzzttt – on youuuuuu…"_

Kiyora let out a girlish shriek. "What the hell is that thing!"

Now wise to their assailant's tactics, Mu merely rolled his eyes and tossed the techno-assassin the rubber bullet. "Not a monster. That's for sure. How close are you?"

Catching the small projectile, the Vie Ghoul assassin turned the object over and over in his hands. "What is this? Monsters don't use rubber bullets!"

"Kiyora. How. Close. Are. You _._ "

"Only 42%. Sheesh!"

"Well, hurry up!" Mu whirled and snatched up his katana that had been accidentally dropped on the floor amid all the chaos and took cover behind the server bank, crouching low. Though he was certain now that this enemy was a man and not a supernatural creature, the blonde watched the doorway closely, his tension rising. This man had out-fought Shizuru, their hand-to-hand specialist, and had out-shot their marksman Dasuku.

Maybe this man… maybe he was a type of monster after all. Gazing out into the darkness beyond the door, Miroku swallowed hard.

" _Kiyoooooraaa—!"_ The disembodied voice moaned over the frequency.

"Hey, you bastard!" Miroku snapped, shouting out into the darkness. "I know you're just some guy! Show yourself already and cut the crap!"

The voice over the headset cut out abruptly, leaving the assassins in unnerving silence.

Suddenly a single gunshot rang out. Mu ducked instinctively but heard the bullet zip wide. There was a loud _clang_ as it struck a fire extinguisher on the far wall. Thick, white smoke burst out in a rapid stream, filling the room with an impenetrable fog.

"So you have discovered my ruse at last! Well done, assassin!" A booming voice suddenly echoed through the enclosed room. "But fear not small children! And evil-doers beware!"

A movement inside the doorway caught the assassin's eye, and he whirled back around just as a strangely dressed man burst out of the artificial fog. Miroku could only watch, shocked and bewildered as the 60-something year-old man dressed in the garb of a nineteenth-century French musketeer complete with bright red, wide-brimmed hat and ostentatious feather whipped his red cape back, sending tendrils of smoke billowing dramatically.

"For it is I, Lory Takarada!" The man assumed a theatrical pose, raising his hand in the air with a flourish. "Master of Disguise and Mimicry, Knight of Light, and Ambassador of Love. Now I challenge, thee, vile assassin, to a duel of honor!"

The strange man whipped out a narrow European rapier, point raised expertly at the stunned Vie Ghoul. Katana now drooping, Miroku just continued to stare at the man blankly. This sudden shift in tone was too much. Mu just couldn't deal. Finally after a couple of seconds, he reached behind his back and pulled a gun out of the waistband of his pants.

Now it was Lory's turn to stare blankly. "Well, that's not very honorable at all."

 **-x-**

His plan was going so well, too. Lory pouted to himself as he returned fire from behind one of the metal server banks. He should have seen it coming though. These younger assassins nowadays were so lazy. Where was the pride in their finely honed crafts, their weapons specialties, their trademark M.O.s?

"Just whip a gun out to solve all your problems," Lory grumbled sarcastically as he turned back around to reload his pistol with a clip of rubber bullets. "No challenge. No struggle. No thrill at all."

A burst of gunfire broke through part of the metal paneling of his cover, and the master spy had to quickly dodge and roll away to a new server bank, bullets nipping at his heels.

"57% up!" The Vie Ghoul member typing away furiously on his laptop in the back of the room called.

Lory frowned. That hacker was probably the reason why the Henshin servers had given Yashiro so much trouble. And it sounded as if the hacker was in the process of uploading all the LME's data back to that same impenetrable server. That was all well and good, as long as the hacker hadn't found –

"Mu, there's actually a second layer of encryption here!"

Cursing under his breath, the master spy tried to peek around to aim at the back corner where the assassin hacker was crouched. The angle was all wrong, even for a well-aimed ricochet, and –

A burst of opposing gunfire made Lory whip back around.

"64% up and almost through the second layer."

"Well, hurry the hell up!" The gun-wielding assassin yelled back.

After a moment of silent calculation and contemplation, Lory sighed and admitted defeat. There was no other way out of this situation.

There was only one way to ensure that this hacker was shut down immediately. So he made the call.

 **-x-**

"Yashiro-kun!"

The tech support blinked, surprised to hear the President's voice over his headset. "President! Are you safe?"

"No time," President Takarada growled. Yashiro paled. He could hear gunfire in the background. "Can you do a repeat of Osaka– but on purpose this time?"

"Please excuse my indiscretion, President Takarada. But… have you gone completely insane?"

"Their hacker found the second layer." Lory cut off for a moment or two, as Yashiro heard him running and then a couple of shouts and thuds as if someone had been punched in the face and then judo thrown across the room. The President came back over the line, and barked, "Just do it, Yukihito!"

Then the President's line cut out completely. Yashiro felt the blood drain from his face; his fellow techies turned to look at him, aghast. The situation really was that dire.

Finally Matsushita spoke up, his voice grim. "I'll contact all the LME agents worldwide and let them know that all systems are going down. Hopefully they'll have time to backup their investigation data to external servers."

Yukihito nodded then turned back to his screen, keying his mic for the three agents in the Henshin hideout. "Agents T, K, and A – Please be advised, we are shutting down our communications network. In about thirty seconds, you're going dark and blind. Not sure for how long."

Yukihito heard the two women exclaim in alarm before Ren's voice came over the line, terse with concern. "Yashiro! What's going on?"

"No time to explain," Yukihito muttered, as his eyes grew wide with inspiration and wild thoughts. "God speed, agents."

Cutting off the link, Yashiro turned to furiously type for fifteen or so seconds on his keyboard. Finally, he hit the Enter key, sending the string of code through. Then he sighed a deep breath out, muttered a small prayer that this crazy plan would work, and looked around the room. At his gaze, the other tech supports and strategists nodded solemnly at him.

Gritting his teeth, the tech support reached forward and gingerly peeled the latex gloves off both his hands. At this point, the other people in the room warily began to remove their personal phones and other electronic devices from contact with their desks.

And with that, Yashiro Yukihito placed his bare palms on the computer screen in front of him.

'One…Two…Three…' He counted in his mind, wincing back in anticipation. 'Four… Five!'

There was a moment of pause, and for a second, he was afraid it wasn't working. Then his computer screen started sizzling as sparks flew up from the motherboard, and the LED display fizzled with static as gibberish text scrawled in increasingly rapid flashes across the screen. Suddenly, his computer screen let out a splash of sparks before fading out forever. All around him, wires overheated, computer monitors caught fire and died, and storage drives exploded in small pops inside their consoles' metal casings.

Apparently after a moment or two, his handiwork had made it to the server room.

Yashiro could almost hear the cheeky grin in the President's voice as Takarada came back over the line and mused, "Those hands of yours ought to have a military patent. Good work–" before all the comm links died.

 **-x-**

Smoke poured into the room, curling out from the small, multiple fires that had cropped up around the server room. Kiyora cursed and batted at the smoke as the servers sparked and fizzled. Another second and his own laptop began to overheat. Illegible gibberish text scrambled across the screen until the software finally crapped out into a blue screen of death.

To make matters worse, overhead the fire alarm began to blare and automated sprinklers popped out from the ceiling to douse the entire room in water. Slamming his laptop screen down in anger, Kiyora quickly made his way over to Mu.

Taking a break from suppressing gunfire to preserve ammo, Miroku was keeping a wary eye out for the strange man on the other end of the room.

"Did you get to 100% before the servers blew?" Mu asked, clearly agitated.

Kiyora could only shrug. "Yeah. Delta should have all 794 terabytes of data, just like he asked."

"Good."

The techno-assassin hedged, "But I couldn't get down into that second layer–"

With a sudden movement, slightly obscured by the sprinkler rain, their assailant across the room leapt up, loosed a single shot, smacking Kiyora directly in the forehead. In a repeat of what happened to Dasuku, the hacker's head snapped back into the hard metal casing of a smoking server bank. The hacker quickly lost consciousness.

Letting loose two rounds of return fire, Miroku cursed and sprinted amidst a hail of rubber bullets to change cover. This was very bad. The whole team of assassins had been taken out by one man. His hand pressed the radio button on his earpiece.

"Rho! Come in, Rho!" Miroku shouted, desperate. The blonde hissed to himself, "Where is that guy!"

 **-x-**

Several floors up in the residential wing, Reino balked at the small, blue object on the desk. He had been following a nicely scented trail of that girl's hatred and fear, but it had all turned out to be that accursed rock. Disappointed, the assassin glanced around the room. It was far too masculine to be Kyoko's quarters, and besides…

Reino shivered at the aura in the air. It felt too much like _that guy's_ darkness.

Stepping away from the desk, the assassin mused with a tinge of regret that perhaps his prey was off the market. Why else would her precious (but dreadfully accursed) talisman be in _his_ room? But Reino quickly dispelled his remorse. Fighting over a delicious morsel of hatred like Kyoko was certainly not worth the inevitable violence of facing off against _him_. One run-in had been quite enough for his tastes.

Speaking of which, Reino thought, it would probably be best if he weren't caught in that Lion-guy's bedroom. He turned to leave.

The assassin was just about to open the door back into the main corridor when he heard a small sound in the hallway. Instantly on-guard, the trained killer quickly but silently ducked to the side of the door and drew a long throwing dagger from his belt.

Another soft shuffling sounded from behind the door. Eyes narrowing, Reino clutched the doorknob then flung the door open, leaping out into the hallway. A flash of maroon caught the edge of his vision, and on reflex, Reino threw his knife. However, his eyes widened as his brain processed that he had just thrown his poisoned weapon in the direction of a little girl wearing a burgundy dress and a mound of brunette ringlets.

"Hey!" With a shout of surprise, the girl shockingly drew her own weapon – an intricately engraved, baroque three-pronged sai – and masterfully deflected his knife. She turned to glare at the assassin. "Watch it, creepo!"

With that, the girl used her free hand to pull down her lower eyelid and stuck out her tongue in a taunt before darting down the hall in the opposite direction.

The Vie Ghoul assassin was tempted to just ignore the small child and instead to continue down to the lower levels to support his team – who had been yelling at him over the radio for a while before he finally turned the infernal thing off. However…

Reino's spiritual sense perked up. There was something very intriguing in the air trailing off the girl, and before he knew it, he had followed her through a maze of hallways and caught sight of her just before she dashed into a room. The placard on the door read, "Maria Takarada," in elegant typeface.

Before Reino could decide whether he wanted to knock or just barge in, the door flew open. Reino scarcely had time to move his head to the side to dodge the sai thrown at his face. He glanced behind him as the weapon wiggled with its retained kinetic energy in the wall.

"S-Stay back you creep!" The young girl snarled from within, brandishing the other sai of the twin pair. "What do you want? Onee-sama's not even in headquarters!"

Oh. That would explain quite a bit. But that interesting sense from earlier had gotten stronger as soon as the girl – Maria, he supposed – had opened the door to her room.

"You're Lory Takarada's granddaughter, I suppose," Reino mused flatly. He had no interest in conversation. Really, he was just trying to stall to try and peek around her into her room.

Maria froze before she snarled, "Yeah. So what? You here to kidnap me or something?"

"Not exactly…" Reino muttered, utterly distracted. Then he saw it. His eyes widened a fraction in an uncharacteristic expression of surprise. "A level four curse circle?"

Maria glanced behind her, then turned back to the assassin, fists planted on hips. "Uh-huh. What's it to you?"

Brushing past the girl and her feeble protests, Reino strode into her room and bent forward to examine the arcane chalk markings on her floor gathered around a small pile of bloodied bandages. "Hmm… Intriguing… You even added a bypass for the target's DNA?"

"Yeah," Maria snapped defensively. "I didn't have a blood or hair sample so I had to use a proxy."

"And it worked?"

"For five weeks!" The young girl bragged, her chest puffed out.

"Hmm," Reino mused, cocking his head to the side as he examined the cryptic scrawls along the edge of the circle. "Elegant work-around."

As if remembering her present situation, Maria shook her head violently and raised her weapon again. "Hey! You're still the enemy! You tried to attack Onee-sama!"

"It's alright," Reino said nonchalantly as he pulled out his radio. He clicked it on. "Mu. We're surrendering. Stop fighting."

"WHAT! Rho! What are you talking about? WHY?"

"I've grown bored and found something else to do," the silver-haired assassin said simply before clicking the handheld unit off again. He turned back to Maria. "Now, tell me how you got a level four to last so long. Three weeks was the longest I'd ever heard of without a blood sample to keep the curse bound and contained…"

 **-x-**

Three white, unmarked vans revved up the sidewalk and rammed through the flimsy metal police barricade, sending protesters screaming and scrambling in a mad panic. Tinted windows gleamed as the vans screeched to a halt on the asphalt of the road, engines steaming in the cold December air. As the dust settled, protesters and police alike peeked out from their hiding places by the rear entrance of the Diet.

People were slowly standing to their feet, clutching signs and fearful of a terrorist attack, when the rear doors to two of the vans suddenly burst open. The public grew very confused, watching a small army of black-clad stage hands flood out, carrying large concert speakers and setting up a flashy Goth-Punk stage on the roof of the final van.

All together, this took around two minutes, and when the first of the shocked police officers had finally made it to the van to confront this new form of protester, the sunroof of the third van opened theatrically. Thick dramatic smoke from a fog machine rolled across the makeshift stage on the roof of the van. Rising slowly on a lift from the depths of the vehicle, her metal studded arms posed coquettishly and her luxurious black hair slicked-back in an edgy ponytail as she clutched a bejeweled microphone was–!

"Mimori? Is that Mimori?" The rustling started. Then people who were filming on their phones began to zoom in on her face. "It is! It's Nanokura Mimori!"

The rustling became a veritable hurricane of human fervor as all the young protestors rushed forward in excitement.

"MIMORI!"

"I heard she was having a concert here! It was on her Twitter!"

"I told you! She's really here!"

"Hey! Come out to the Diet RIGHT NOW, Mimori is having a concert!"

The police officer, now struggling to get through the surging crowd finally made his way to the stagehands who had formed a protective human barrier between the masses and the stage. The officer, his cap knocked askew, gestured wildly to the cars blocking the road up to the government building.

"What are you doing?" He yelled over the screeches of the crowd. "You have to move! You're blocking the employee entrance to the Diet!"

But before the stagehands could feign ignorance, the masses of screaming humanity had pushed past the officer, surrounding him and shoving him away.

From inside the van, Sho could hear Mimori outside on her microphone, her voice cutesy and pert. "Hello~ everyone~! I'm so excited to see you all!"

Worried, Sho continued to scroll through his video messages for the third time, as if that would change the fact that Delta's people hadn't sent him a new video of Kyoko in over five hours. Maybe that was a good sign? Maybe it meant that Tsuruga-bastard had gotten her and she was safe…

"You've all been so, so good!" Mimori exclaimed from outside as she hyped up the crowd. "As I promised, I have a hu~ge surprise for you! Are you ready?"

There was a thunderous roar of applause and screams from the audience. Clicking his phone off and tossing it onto one of the van's seats, Sho reached for his guitar. He stopped. His hand was shaking.

"He's a very, very good friend of mine–!"

"Stop it!" Sho hissed, rubbing his hands together and trying to ignore his hammering heart. He could hear the thousands of people clamoring outside. "Why the hell are you nervous now?"

"So make sure you give him a big~ warm~ welcome~!"

"I can do this…"

"He's the best – the coolest – the most drop-dead gorgeous musician I've ever met!"

 _Kyoko beamed up at him, her eyes brimming with confidence. 'Of course I'll go to Tokyo with you, Sho-chan! You're the most talented musician I've ever heard! You'll make it in Show Biz for sure!'_

"I can do this." Clenching his hands into fists, Sho let out a soothing breath. His eyes flashed open and he reached for his guitar, hand steady. "I'm fucking Fuwa Sho, baby."

"He's Fuwa~ Sho~!"

The musician stood up and confidently strode over to the electric lift to the roof of the van. His eyes narrowed as he assumed his Cool-Guy expression. "It's Sho time…"

 **\- 0:51 + 30 minutes until revote -**

 **-x-**

Kanae sheathed her tonfa in her side belt loops, pausing to smugly dust off her hands over the unconscious bodies of her enemies. These guards were a joke, more used to brawling than a proper tactical fight. Agent K guessed by the colorful tattoos snaking up the sides of their necks, the three guards were probably appropriated from some yakuza group or other.

She snuck a glance at the guard's cap she had thrown over the security camera protruding from the top corner of the wall. Since she'd been cut off from HQ and any techies, she'd made it a priority to snatch one of the guard's hats and toss it over the security camera when the fight first started. It still hung in place. Hopefully, the people watching the security feed were more inclined to think the darkened camera a technical error than sabotage. No alarm had been tripped yet – to Kanae's knowledge – so that was a good thing.

Briskly, Agent K turned to face the locked door that separated her from her best frie—er, Agent M. The guards hadn't exactly been very subtle when they were giggling about their good-looking prisoner. Kanae scoffed at them. Amateurs.

Three solid kicks to the door right above the handle, and the wood splintered. Kanae burst through the door. "Agent M!"

Her voice died in her throat. It wasn't Kyoko.

A familiar voice asked, clearly bewildered, "Kotonami-san?"

Mind still reeling, Kanae heard a soft _thmp_ behind her. She whirled, thinking that maybe she hadn't knocked out one of the guards well enough. However none of the bodies had moved. The only thing different was that on the floor in the corner lay an olive green guard's cap.

The dark-haired agent blinked at it. Then her head snapped up toward the open-faced security camera, a curse forming on her lips.

Down the hall, an alarm began to blare loudly.

 **-x-**

How did this happen? Realistically, Kyoko knew that she was hiding from the guards who had chased her here. And the guards had chased her into the dusty overhead vent system because when they'd demanded her employee ID at the heavily guarded exit, she hadn't been able to produce it. And she would've gotten away with the excuse that she'd left it in her other janitor's uniform – she was _so_ sorry for the inconvenience – except her excuses had fallen flat as soon as the intruder alarm started sounding, over the loud speakers, causing the guards to turn on her in suspicion.

But why on earth would an evil organization like Henshin even have an employee ID system anyway, Kyoko groused mentally. It was so… mundane. She paused for a moment, mid-army crawl. Actually, Director Konoe seemed like the type to institute something like that, Agent M mused.

Kyoko sighed as she began to yet again to crawl forward bit by bit on her belly and arms. The only light guiding her way was from the occasional ventilation grate that linked the overhead vent shaft to the outside. She had been so close to escaping, and now who knew where she'd pop out or if the guards at the exit had sent out an organization-wide message on her physical description.

The junior agent no longer even had the benefit of Ito-san's handheld. She had tossed it in the trash of a random bathroom just in case someone thought to track the signal from it to find the person who had pilfered the unit off Ito Himawari's unconscious body.

 _Creaaaak_. Snapping out of her train of thoughts, Agent M realized that while pondering, she had stopped moving. The metal walls of the vent groaned anxiously at her weight.

Silencing her frightened squeak, Kyoko scrabbled forward, pulling herself along with her forearms and pushing with her knees against the hard metal floor. The creaking slowly decrescendoed into a fragile silence.

With bated breath, the auburn-haired agent waited. No metallic groans. Kyoko huffed out a quiet sigh of relief. Thank goodness… That was the last thing she needed right now was for the vent to –

The metal sheeting dropped out from under her with a great grinding shriek. With a yell, Kyoko found herself falling through the air. For a brief millisecond, she wondered how far up she was and if she'd break anything when she fell. However, her fall was much shorter than she'd anticipated.

"Wahhh!" _CRASH._

Kyoko hit a solid surface, tumbled off, hit something else, bounced off the large flat object, and finally fell another decent distance before connecting painfully with the unforgiving concrete ground.

"Ouch…" Kyoko whimpered after a moment of stunned silence. She just lay there in shock, letting the aches and pains from various bodily appendages wash over her. Glancing up, she saw the traitorous duct, dangling at its fractured joint around two or three meters off the ground of what appeared to be a medium-sized warehouse. Luckily, it seemed that several stacks of wooden crates had broken her fall, otherwise she could have hurt more than just her dignity.

"Who's there?" A deep voice growled. Kyoko froze. There was a guard in the room.

Scrambling as quietly as she could, she rolled to her feet, ignoring the various bruises on her arms and legs. She paused, listening for his footsteps. Though he was clearly trying to muffle the brunt of his step, he sounded heavy – a soft metal _snick_ sounded as a gun's safety got switched off – and armed.

Swallowing hard, Agent M cast about herself for a weapon. Wooden crates – Forklift without keys – Coil of rope – ROPE!

Swiftly, with cat-like quickness, Kyoko darted behind another stack of crates and silently lifted the rope off its peg on the wall. It fit snugly in her palm and was short enough to heft with her spare hand in two coils. Behind her hiding spot, Kyoko scanned the room. There was an exit in front of her, but the door was closed. An electronic keypad blinked with an ominous red light next to it.

Slowly, she peeked around the corner. Across the warehouse was a large industrial door, its horizontal metal panels rolled up in the open position. Nearby, a shadow moved across the floor from behind one of the stacks of crates.

Kyoko whipped back around behind her cover. The guard was between her and the only available exit. Her mind raced, trying to come up with a solution or a viable diversion that would allow her to sneak past him without a fight.

"I know you're there. Show yourself!" The male voice demanded. Agent M's heart skipped a beat. The man was definitely a pro. His last series of steps, she hadn't even heard! He was right behind her stack of crates now. Kyoko tried to quiet her panicked breathing.

Moving slowly and silently, Kyoko crouched, lowering her center of gravity and minimizing the target of her body. The young woman gripped the rope with white knuckles. She would only have one shot at this.

The gun appeared around the corner of her hiding place. Then the guard's hand.

'NOW!' Agent M sprang upward, her legs powering her strike. The heel of her hand shot up, knocking the stock of the pistol upward just as a shot rang out. Gripping the pistol barrel with a hand that jammed the slide, she pulled the gun off to the side, trying to jerk the man's solar plexus down to meet her knee strike.

With a yell, her opponent's knee came up to meet hers, effectively blocking the strike. Kyoko fought off panic as his leg tried to kick out at hers, throwing her off balance. Instead, Kyoko used his momentum to twist her body around to his other side and throw all of her weight onto his hand with the gun. At the same time, her other hand whipped out with the coil of rope, catching a loop around the guard's airborne ankle.

She jerked on the rope hard and twisted on his hand in the opposite direction. The gun went skittering across the floor behind the guard. Kyoko's hands flew up almost on instinct to block the punch to her chest and she dove to the side, pulling hard on the rope still attached to the man's ankle. With a shout, the man almost tripped, but righted himself at the last moment and used that forward momentum to try and roundhouse kick her in the side of the head.

A chance! Kyoko dropped the rope, slid under the kick behind the man, somersaulted across the floor, grabbed the gun, spun around while cocking it and –

The barrel of another pistol stared back at her.

'Oh. He had two guns,' Kyoko thought belatedly. However the majority of her mental processing power was focused farther up.

For holding the second gun, a stunned expression on his handsome face, was not a guard but Tsuruga Ren.

 **\- 1:02 until revote -**

 **-x-**

 **Notes** :

Kiyora, Dasuku, and Shizuru are the other 3 members of Vie Ghoul. Kiyora is the keyboardist, so it would make sense that he's the hacker, right? Keyboards? (LOLs by herself then cries)

Also, I always had a feeling that Reino and Maria would share similar interests haha

 **MAILBAG:** (If you want me to respond to your comments, theories, or questions leave a review in the box below!)

 **Kikoune** – Thanks so much for reviewing so many chapters! As for your comments about Chiori being a double-agent, for a while I was considering making Kyoko a double-agent (how's that for a twist!) but I just couldn't see how I could logically fit it into the story. It was dropped but maybe in another fic! Thanks again! Let me know what you thought of this chapter!

 **Aikori Ichijouji** – I agree! Kyoko, if only for her occasional clumsiness, is always extremely dangerous! Just kidding, I love her hard-working attitude and combined with her natural talent, she's a force to be reckoned with indeed! Thanks for popping by to say hello!

 **Brennakai** – Lory is definitely on his home turf, and he really used that to his advantage in today's chapter! Not shown here but behind the scenes, Ruto (a.k.a. Sebastian) was helping Lory hack into the Vie Ghoul's communications and cut the lights off in the hallway so he could start his attack.

 **Guest** – Thank you so much! I really appreciate that you took the time to leave multiple review! I'm so grateful! Leave a unique name next time so I can do a shout out! Also, I love that you're enjoying the dynamic between Kimiko and Ren! You're the first one to have commented on that!

 **H-Nala** – Yup! Today's chapter was a lot of jumping back and forth between the two HQs.

 **MWEH** – There was another Skip Beat FB fan page that was created recently. It's called "LME" and even though there's only like 1 post per week, it's all in English. I think it's a Closed group, so I don't know if you can do a general search and find it on FB. And maaaaan, last manga chapter, the way Ren looked at Kyoko and the way she looked back at him on that last page where he gave her the ring… GAH! So good! But for serious, the manga does seem to drag at times… I'm just dreading the day where Nakamura-sensei is too frail to actually keep up with her page count and the series gets passed on to one of her assistants or gets hurriedly discontinued. Ugh. Well, hope you enjoyed seeing Lory in action this chapter, even if it was more from the shadows! Thanks again for reading and reviewing MWEH!

 **Guineapigs1** – Bingo! Your hunch that her homing beacon activating was a trick was absolutely correct. But… it was also a little more than that. We shall see, though. ;) As for a Lory-Reino interaction, sorry but it seems as though the world will have to continue to wait. Reino ended up ditching the rest of the Vie Ghoul before Lory could take them out. Better for Lory though. I have a feeling that Reino would have seen through his plan from the very beginning. Thanks as always Guineapigs1!

 **-x-**

 **Please don't forget to leave a review, fave, or alert! We are just a handful away from 300 reviews (!) and 100 faves (!). And don't forget to check out the first of my one-shot series, ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE. Thanks loyal readers, I feel so blessed!**


	41. Chapter 41

Hello loyal readers,

Recently, I've started watching Wotakoi (a slice of life romance about adult otaku in the working world). I loooove the two main characters (who kind of remind me of Kyoko and Ren), and all the shoujo tropes it subverts. Highly recommend it! (It's on Amazon Prime Video, do it nowwww)

Today, we have the moment we have all been waiting for… The reappearance of Bo! (Just kidding, I know that's not what you guys have been waiting for hehehe)

Hope you all enjoy!

Again, if you're looking for more Skip Beat goodness, I've started a SB one-shot series on my other story _All the World's a Stage_. Go check it out!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH41**

– **The night before the Prime Minister's Birthday Gala –**

"So Tsuruga-kun has never been in love before?"

The look on Agent T's face said that he was not amused at his predicament. However, the giant chicken certainly was. Even through Bo's sturdy foam headpiece, Kyoko could scarcely hide her disbelief and growing, overwhelming urge to guffaw loudly.

The legendary Agent T – the man whose very face had its own interdepartmental fan club – had never been in love before?

But he was such a playboy! Before Kyoko had been assigned as his kouhai – she'd heard the stories – he'd had so many different female partners that Kyoko had assumed he had more leading ladies and love interests than a famous movie star.

Sitting on a large wardrobe trunk amidst the organized chaos of the Muse's costume department, Ren shot the chicken a withering glare. "I can hear your silent judgment from over here."

Kyoko had to stifle an automatic, "Eep!" and settled for a sheepish, "Ah, Tsuruga-kun caught me~!"

"You could've at least denied it, you know." Ren frowned slightly and plopped his head in one hand dejectedly. He grumbled off to the side, "It's not like never being in love has caused me any trou– _much_ trouble on the job."

If Kyoko didn't know any better, she would've thought that Tsuruga Ren, the legendary Agent T, was pouting like a moody teenager.

As Bo, Kyoko uttered a deep chuckle. "Now, now, Tsuruga-kun. While love is–" A disease? A three-act tragedy? A calamity of catastrophic proportions? "–difficult, it sounds like having experience could have saved you some grief on one of your missions," Kyoko managed to finish, still trying to maintain the character of Bo. She had no idea what mission that could've been – certainly not the one at that shady accountant's house with her and Momose-san? It had worked out well in the end, hadn't it?

Ren sighed, his head flopping to hang between his drooping shoulders. After a moment, he twitched his head up, his expression now annoyed. Apparently, he wasn't taking well to getting love advice from a chicken. "Well, Mr. Chicken who also happens to be a love-guru – what does it feel like to be in love?"

"I suppose… A prelude to love would feel like…" Taking a second to think, one wing pressed thoughtfully to the mask's chin, Bo answered, "Just by gazing upon her face… No matter how weary you are, you will feel happy. Deep inside your heart, you will feel a warmth… Normally, we call this "love."

Trying to choke back the bile at the base of her throat, Kyoko took a while to notice the wide-eyed expression on her senpai's face as he stared off into space. Kyoko blinked, realizing. "So you have someone in mind!"

"What?" Instantly, Ren blinked himself out of his thoughts, blushed, and then recoiled. "Wh-what makes you say that?"

"Your reaction just now told me." Kyoko hoped that her extremely smug look wouldn't translate across the thick styrofoam head, but from the withering glower on his face, she could tell that she wasn't being very successful in hiding it. "So who is it?"

Tipping the back of his head back to stare at the ceiling, Ren sighed heavily. He said haltingly, "Actually it's my childhood friend–"

'Wow, it's like a J-drama,' Kyoko thought in shock. Of course, dramatic romance things like this would happen to beautiful people like Ren.

"–We met again recently, and she didn't recognize me–"

'Must not be a very perceptive girl,' Kyoko mused, nodding internally to herself. 'Must be either blind or immeasurably dense.'

"–I'm lying to her about who I am, and now…" Ren paused and sighed again. "I don't know what I feel toward her… But maybe it's better to just let these feelings die out."

He uttered a small, bitter laugh, his head dropping to examine his hands in his lap. "After everything I've done… It's not like I deserve love anyway."

The look on her partner's face was agonizingly pained. Kyoko felt a prick at her heart just looking at him. While she knew love was a poison more insidious than carbon monoxide, she couldn't bring herself to try and convince him that a loveless life was a fortune. Then again, for people like _her_ , love was bound to end in tragedy, but people like Tsuruga Ren at least had a fighting chance for a happy ending.

"Maybe," Kyoko heard her voice piping up in Bo's false-baritone, "Maybe one day, if you tell her, she will understand."

Ren barked a dry, ironic laugh. "Isn't that awfully naïve? Hoping that she'll just look beyond my flaws and love me exactly the way I am?"

"No…" Kyoko trailed off, thinking hard to try and pin down the thoughts and feelings whirling around in her mind. "It's not like that… Love can't be just blindly accepting somebody – flaws and all – refusing to see the other person for the real selfish, rude, inconsiderate, back-stabbing, conniving–"

"Uh…"

"I mean–!" Kyoko huffed a small sigh, attempting to cover from her slip out of character. "To be honest, I haven't figured it out yet either. But I feel that love is more than just a fluffy feeling and jumping straight in, mindlessly ignoring shortcomings…"

"Well, if even my Love Guru hasn't totally figured it out," Ren replied, his joking tone trying to downplay his earlier melancholy. "Then there must be no hope for me after all!"

Bo sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with one wing. "Love is certainly a mystery!"

Kyoko paused then looked intently at her partner. After witnessing his earlier pain, his sparkling smile looked like a cardboard mask taped to his face. For some reason, it hurt her. She tried to convey all the sincerity she could in her tone as she said in Bo's voice, "I truly hope that one day you can solve that mystery and find happiness, Tsuruga-kun."

Before he rose and bid the chicken farewell, Ren's only reply was a small, bittersweet smile.

 **-x-**

– **1:01 until revote –**

"Agent M…"

"T-san…"

Kyoko wasn't prepared for this. The junior agent just stood there, staring at her senpai – who honestly seemed equally shell-shocked – both their gun barrels now drooping listlessly toward the floor. She had told Kimiko that Ren would come for her, but amidst everything that had happened… It was still quite the shock to meet him like this.

Thinking back to her revelation in the prison cell, her racing mind scrutinized his face. Was he really Corn? Was this really the face of a man who cared for her? A thrill of fear mingled with excitement raced down her spine.

But, wait a moment… More importantly…

"T-san!" Kyoko finally blurted out, "Have you been eating? You look as though you haven't had a meal in days!"

Holstering his weapon, Ren grimaced and hazarded, "I did eat something…"

"When?" Kyoko demanded.

Agent T muttered something under his breath.

"Two days ago!" Horrified, Kyoko launched onto her soapbox, that his eating habits – or lack thereof – were frightening for someone who was supposedly a consummate professional. Now far beyond awareness of the time and place, she began animatedly lecturing Ren, concerned that he had picked up Cain's bad habits of drinking booze for meals and that vitamin deficiencies were a real life problem, you know? Anemia, pellagra, and Wernicke's encephalopathy were all extremely dangerous–!

While she was ranting, from some far corner of her mind, Kyoko watched Ren's lips twitch multiple times as if he were trying to hold back a smirk or laugh, until eventually all pretense was abandoned and he burst out in a smile as bright as the sun. He stepped forward, arms outstretched as if to embrace her, and in instinctive shock at this sudden turn of events, Kyoko broke off and froze as stiff as a board.

As if in response to her expression, Ren's hands changed trajectory to settle hesitantly on her shoulders. Her lecture dying on her lips, she looked up at him shyly, trying not to look as disappointed as she felt that he clearly did not want to hug her. Still, a curl of happiness twisted in her stomach, feeling the comforting weight of his palms on her shoulders.

His smile, however, didn't fade. It radiated down on her, and she felt a flush work its way from the tip of her head down to her toes.

Ren's eyes crinkled in amusement. "That's so like you."

"What?"

"You were the one being held captive, and the first thing you ask me is if _I've_ been eating well."

Kyoko pouted. "From the sound of it, _I've_ been fed far better than _you_ have this past week."

At this, Ren looked her quickly up and down, turning her head this way and that with a gentle hand on her chin. Though Kyoko was sure he didn't find any signs of trauma, his expression became worried. "You look well, but… did they…?"

Kyoko felt her heart warm. He had been worried about her. She shook her head vigorously and gave a small laugh. "Surprisingly, I was treated with great dignity and kindness."

"Remind me to give Delta my thanks," Ren said with a wry smile, only a trace of bitterness in his voice.

Agent M scoffed. "You'll have to get in line. I have my thanks to give him as well–" and curled her hand into a slender fist.

His eyes crinkled in amusement again. Then the mirth faded, and Ren looked down. His hands slipped from her shoulders. Kyoko instantly missed their warmth.

"M-san," Ren murmured softly. "How can I ever apologize to you for the mess I've gotten you into?"

In protest, Kyoko opened her mouth, but closed it when he held up a hand, his eyes sad.

"The only one to blame here is myself," the dark-haired agent said gravely. "My selfishness and weakness drove me to make the decisions I did, and you suffered for it in the end."

Unwilling to interrupt him, Kyoko watched the pain and tumult cross his dark eyes.

"That's why, I swore to myself, if I ever saw you again, I would make it all right. There would be no more hiding…" Ren locked eyes with her, his gaze boring into hers. "Mogami-san, I have two confessions to make."

Kyoko's heart soared.

"First…" Ren took a deep, calming breath, and then said, "I have been lying to you this whole time. I'm not who I say I am or who you've known me to be."

Huh?

Kyoko's heart instantly sunk. Her mind went blank as she desperately tried to process his words. What was he talking about?

"I've been hiding the truth from you this whole time because I was afraid of hurting you…"

Cracked and repaired time and time again, the love-wary heart of Mogami Kyoko instantly leapt toward the conclusion she had feared the most.

He had just been acting, pretending to have feelings for her. For what reason, just to be cruel? For the job? She was just a plain boring girl after all. She didn't know why she had expected or hoped for anything else.

Pit in her stomach growing heavier by the moment, Kyoko thought despondently, 'He's talking about leading me on with false feelings. Just like Kimiko had warned me…'

Spinning, reeling, Kyoko's mind couldn't seem to get a logical beat down. So emotions took the reins.

"Well, there's a reason why you're such a great agent. You're amazing at pretending…" Kyoko finally managed, trying to keep her voice light but the bitter downturn at the end gave her away.

Ren sounded shocked. "You knew?"

"I had my suspicions, but I didn't _know_ ," Kyoko said miserably. The tears welled in her eyes. "But now I know that everything was a lie…"

She just wanted to run away – but to what and to whom? Her mom had abandoned her. Sho had betrayed her. And now…

 **-x-**

How had everything gone so wrong?

Ren looked down at the girl in front of him who was clearly fighting bitter tears.

The senior agent glanced away, pained. He hadn't known that she had figured him out already and that she would take the truth this hard – the truth that he was Corn and that he wasn't really a fairy.

Her reaction… Was Yashiro wrong about her feelings? Ren had been so confidently happy back at HQ, but now, seeing her react to this news with such anger was extremely disconcerting. And if she took the first confession this way, the second thing he had promised himself he would tell her was probably going to go even worse. His heart sank.

Ren stumbled over his words. "I-I'm sorry. I thought you would've figured it out by now that everything had been an act."

Eyes rising to glare at him as her grief flashed into anger, Kyoko snapped back. "Sorry for being such a simple-minded idiot for trusting and believing you!"

"I thought…" Ren murmured, still reeling at her extreme emotional response. "I thought you would understand... I never meant for my deception to be hurtful. At the time, I thought it was rather harmless."

"Of course it was harmful! You got my hopes up! Everyone was right about you!" Kyoko muttered angrily. "I thought you were different, T-san!"

Becoming desperate to justify himself, Ren blurted out at the same time Kyoko retorted –

"How was I supposed to know you'd cling to my fairy story for so many years?"

"You're just a despicable playboy of unimaginable proportions!"

The two stopped short.

Mind trying to fit the puzzle pieces together and coming up short, Ren blinked repeatedly as he watched Kyoko open her mouth, then snap it shut. Open it again. Then close it. Finally the two managed –

"Playboy…?"

"Fairy story…?"

Kyoko tilted her head to the side. "I'm confused."

"Let's back track." Ren held his hands up. Taking a deep breath and trying not to hope against hope that this was all just a misunderstanding, Ren said slowly, "I'm not a fairy."

For what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time, Kyoko stared blankly at him, and then her mouth dropped open. "You _are_ Corn?"

Ren nodded.

He watched as her eyes took on that bejeweled sparkle of imaginary-fairy-world-Kyoko – before his childhood friend abruptly wilted. "So it's true… you're not a fairy?"

Ren smiled apologetically. This was the response that he'd expected. "Sorry, I'm not."

"Did you at least overcome your father?" Kyoko asked excitedly as she brightened.

"I got a little side-tracked…" Reminded of his mistakes, Ren sighed and looked down. "Mogami-san, how can I ever apologize for what I've done to you? I put my own stupid, reckless, selfish goals ahead of your wellbeing. If it weren't for you, I might be dead right now–"

The young woman shook her head vigorously. "When you care for someone, you don't just let them wallow in their mistakes. You try to help them fight."

Her words – 'care for' – echoed in his head, and he felt the beginnings of a blush begin to creep up his neck. Then it struck him. The love advice from the chicken. Yes, fuzzy feelings were the prelude to love, but deeper, more fully – _this_ was love. Looking the person – warts and all – full in the face and wanting more for them. So that meant that Kyoko, toward him felt–!

"So you care for me? Enough to help me change?"

"Of course." Seemingly caught off-guard by his strange tone, Kyoko tilted her head to the side. "I mean, you helped me as well. You helped me see that there is more to this life than bitterness and revenge…"

"So… you could say that I care for you too, just as much as you care for me."

"I-I mean–" Finally catching his implication toward her feelings, Kyoko stumbled over her words as she looked down, her face aflame. "Of course you're my respected senpai, a-and you–"

She didn't deny it. Grinning, Ren took a step forward. In her near panic, Kyoko hardly seemed to notice.

"You're an irreplaceable part of my life – a-as my partner and friend, and–"

He took another step forward, completely closing the distance between them, and as he used one hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and leaned down, her words slowed.

"And you're my… my…"

Her breath felt warm and sweet on his cheek. Eyes fluttering closed, Ren whispered, bemused, "Mogami-san, this is the part where we stop talking…"

Their lips brushed just barely, and Ren leaned in farther, his other hand rising to rest on her lower back and pull her closer.

"Hey YOU TWO! STOP RIGHT THERE!"

 **-x—**

At the harsh male voice, Kyoko's eyes flew open, and she heard Ren curse. Bullets whizzed through the air as a dozen green-uniformed guards stormed into the warehouse. Adrenaline already on high, Kyoko hardly had time to bemoan her bad luck before she had whipped T-san's spare pistol back out and was matching her partner in returning fire.

She saw one of her shots hit a guard in the shoulder, and he went down hard. Kyoko saw Agent T down another two guards. Still more henchmen spilled into the room, all yelling and ducking behind cover.

The two dove behind a pile of wooden crates, gunfire occasionally showering them in a spray of splinters. Kyoko winced back as a piece of debris flew too close to her eye. She glanced up at Ren, who after emptying his clip, ducked back behind the crates to reload.

He grinned down at her, his joy clearly irrepressible even by present circumstances. "Between the two of us, I'd say we have the most rotten luck when it comes to this kind of thing."

Laughing a little, she poked her head out, took aim, and fired two more shots. The first hit a wooden crate, and the second caught another guard in the leg as he attempted to run for closer cover toward the duo.

"I'd say!"

That was when overhead, the Klaxon siren began to sound. A voice over the loudspeakers shrilled repeatedly, "Lockdown initiated, Warehouse 2. Lockdown initiated, Warehouse 2–"

A loud rumble sounded behind the agents.

Alarmed, Kyoko whirled around. The only exit – the industrial shutter door that she had previously been attempting to reach – was slowly closing, the heavy metal slats rolling down from the ceiling. "T-san!"

Ren caught her meaning and began to sprint for the door. "Cover me!"

Kyoko laid down cover fire for her partner. After he reached the door, he returned the favor and Agent M sprinted forward, staying as low and fast as she could.

"You're bleeding," Ren yelled over the din of gunfire and alarms as she ran up. Kyoko glanced down at a shallow nick along her upper arm that was oozing blood.

"Just a graze!" She called back and started for the door, which by this time had lowered to about waist height.

Temporarily covered behind a haphazard stack of boxes and crates, Ren yelled, "I'll hold. You go first. I'll be right after you."

Straining, Ren gripped the bottom of the door, partially slowing its descent. Kyoko ducked double and quickly ran underneath the shutter.

Not a moment too soon. Ren gave a sudden cry and the shutter abruptly dropped an arm's length. Kyoko whirled back, alarmed. The metal door continued its slow inevitable descent, but behind it, Kyoko could see that Ren had dropped to one knee, clutching his side.

His hand came away crimson and wet.

"T-san!" Kyoko yelped and tried to grip the bottom of the heavy metal door and strained with all her might. The mechanism continued to push the door down and down and down. Abandoning her fruitless efforts, she attempted to crawl back under the shutter, but it was closing too fast. She would get trapped underneath.

Ren cursed. Kyoko crouched to her forearms and belly. "T-san, hurry up! I can't stop the door."

In response, Ren grimaced and fished around in his pocket, tossing her two objects that skittered across the floor. Her hands caught them, brain briefly registering them as a smart watch and a comm link.

"Rendezvous point with Agents A and K is on the watch. Go!"

"No…" Her heart sinking as she caught his intent, Kyoko just stared at him. The shots began to ring closer and closer.

"I can't come. I'm just going to slow you down," Agent T replied, wincing. He turned and shot twice with his pistol. One of the oncoming guards dropped to the floor. "There's no other option."

"Don't do this! Please!" Kyoko wailed, now straining to see him from under the crack in the door. As if ignoring her, Ren continued on.

"I almost forgot the second thing I wanted to tell you." Ren called out, a small laugh in his voice before he disappeared entirely behind the shutter. "Mogami Kyoko, I love you."

The metal scrolling door closed with a heavy, ominous _CLANG_. As she heard the sounds of a fierce gunfight from behind the shutter, Kyoko ran back and forth frantically, kicking the hinges, trying to pull at the heavy chain mechanism, straining to wedge her fingers underneath to try and lift it again. Repeated _ping-pping-ping_ sounded as bullets ricocheted off the other side of the thick door.

Then abruptly, the sounds of gunfire stopped.

"T…san…?" Freezing, Kyoko's heart dropped.

"T-san? Ren?" Protocol abandoned, Kyoko screamed and banged on the door again and again, her cries turning into desperate sobs. "REN!"

"There she is!" A stern female voice barked far to her left.

Kyoko whipped around. Beyond the blurriness of her tears, she could make out two or three guards running down the hall toward her, their steel-toed boots tramping on the tiled floor.

Taking one last long look at the heavy industrial shutter that stood between her and Ren, Kyoko swiped an arm over her eyes and ran.

 **\- 0:49 until revote -**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Notes:** Quick poll: Are you guys more pissed that I cock-blocked Kyoko and Ren or got Ren shot? Dundundu~n!

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG:**

 **CrystallineX** – Thanks for taking the time to review! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts as you were going through the chapters. As for the problem with Korean in Chapter 31, you're right! I don't watch too many K-dramas or have much interest in Korean culture (despite being Korean myself), so that was all literally put through Google translate haha. And you totally called Kaiso being a plot twist… He's a double plot twist! Haha Thanks again and hope to see you in the review section in the future! (And thanks for being my 100th fave! :D

 **Guest** – Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

 **MWEH** – Hmm, LME is a closed group so I guess it doesn't show up on public searches? But honestly the message boards on the LME page are kind of dead except around the 20th of each month, so not sure if I'll stick around or not. And I'm so so so glad you liked the last chapter! It was a bear to write, TBH. So much writer's block TT_TT But I'm glad it turned out well in the end! In other news, what did you think of the most recent manga chapter? I was honestly a little sad at how anti-climactic it was, but also… That reaction was just so… Kyoko-ish! Haha I can't hate Nakamura-sensei too much because she definitely keeps us guessing and laughing. And that's what I love about Skip Beat to begin with – Kyoko's not a typical wimpy, love-crazy shoujo protag. Sooo I guess, be careful what we wish for TT_TT

 **Kittiesama** – Haha, I absolutely agree with you! In my fic's head canon, the Vie Ghoul does join the LME unit. Honestly, I feel like Maria and Reino would have such a fun dynamic if they ever met in the manga. Thanks for reviewing from the beginning! Welcome to the fam!

 **Ezra Tsuruga** – Did you recently change your username? Love the Skip Beat theme! Haha And I'm SO GLAD that someone understood my keyboard joke *cries of happiness* As for the August manga chapter, I DIED! Loved it so much! But then September's chapter hit, and I was like…. That's so Kyoko, I can't even. -_- Haha I don't have a discord, but I keep on hearing things about it, so if I ever have the time to get one, I'll let you know! Hope your life gets better! You're awesome too :) Don't forget that!

 **Guineapigs1** – Oh man, that would be so tragic if Kyoko had shot Ren on accident! Glad you enjoyed the chapter last month! Thanks for reading both fics and for reviewing!

* * *

 **Don't forget! If this story made you laugh or cry or squeeeee~ or anything else, don't forget to leave a review, a fave, or an alert! Your feedback really drives my motivation. Thanks loyal readers! We made it to 100 faves and over 300 reviews! I feel so blessed. Thank you all!**


	42. Chapter 42

Hello loyal readers!

I'm so so sorry that I'm a week late! I usually try to post on the first weekend of every month, but this month I was a little behind in writing. October was pretty busy, and on top of that, I really didn't like the chapter outline I originally had for this section of the story, so I had to re-write it and pretty much start from scratch, but I really like the way it turned out!

But better late than never, right! Thanks so much for all the faves and reviews! It's always encouraging to see that people are enjoying the story and want it to continue.

Today we have the LoveMe division gearing up to – as one very awesome Marvel character once put – "Kick names and take ass". I'm going to try to go back to posting on the first Friday of every month, so see you in early December!

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH42**

 **\- 0:37 until revote -**

Kanae frowned at her watch. Agent T was late. Given that she herself had accidentally raised the intruder alarm while freeing _that person_ , it was understandable that both she and Chiori had stumbled back into the deserted storage room several minutes behind their scheduled meeting time. However… The Never Late King was worrisomely absent from their temporary hideout.

"Mou…" Kanae murmured, scowling. "What's taking him so long?"

"Do you think he got caught?" Chiori whispered, as if discussing a topic too outlandish and taboo to even speak aloud. Instead of responding, Kanae turned her back to the other girl.

"And what are those idiots back at HQ doing?" Agent K muttered, busying herself by tapping away at her comm watch. "Why are the servers still down?"

"K-san, I said, do you think he–"

"Mou!" Kanae snapped peevishly, whirling back around. "I don't know! Read the atmosphere a little better, Agent A. Don't ask ominous questions like that!"

Cringing away from the dark-haired agent's ire, Chiori put her hands up defensively. "K-san, your voice! You're too loud. What if someone hears? _We_ could get caught–!"

The shorter girl broke off her sentence, pausing. There was a scratching, shuffling sound by the door, and the two agents froze. The doorknob jiggled once and then slowly twisted open.

"We got caught!" Chiori shrieked. "I surrender!"

"No, we don't surrender!" Snagging the younger woman by the back of her collar as she attempted to flee to the back of the room, Kanae lifted her pistol at the door and snapped maniacally, "C'mon you bastards! You'll never take us alive!"

"Please don't lump me in with you!" Agent A yelped back, struggling to get away. "I'm in the LoveMe division because I hate this job, remember?"

"Mou, just shoot! Shoot! Let them see a hell of bullets!"

Agents A and K broke off abruptly. The door had finished opening with a quiet creak, and Kanae found her gun now leveled at a very panicked looking auburn-haired, amber-eyed agent.

"M-Moko-san! I would rather not see a hell of bullets, please!" Kyoko squealed, her hands flying up in surrender.

Within milliseconds, Kanae and Chiori had grabbed their formerly-missing friend by the front of her shirt, pulled her into the room, and slammed the door behind them.

"Kyo – er, M-san!" Chiori corrected herself as she flung herself on the young woman, embracing her fiercely. "You're ok! We were all so worried about you!"

"Thank you, A-san! I missed you two as well!" Kyoko turned expectant eyes to Kanae like a puppy begging for scraps. Knowing what her friend wanted, but too embarrassed to deliver, the LoveMe Number Two girl reached forward and instead of hugging Kyoko, fiercely karate-chopped her over the head.

"Mou, we _were_ all worried about you," Kanae huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and turning to the side. "But it looks like you've been just fine, gallivanting around energetically."

Rubbing her head, Kyoko pouted and muttered, "So cold, Moko-san… Even after I escaped and met you here…"

"But how did you escape?" Chiori interjected and looked at Kyoko with wide eyes. "How did you know where to find us?"

"Well, I got out of my cell, and then when I was trying to find an exit, I ran into some guards. But then I came across Agent T and then…"

Kanae turned back, hearing the odd tone in her friend's voice as she cut off abruptly. Kyoko's face was in shadow, expression covered by her hair. A pit began forming in the older woman's stomach.

"Agent T… He saved me…" The junior agent's shoulders began shaking, and Kanae could only watch helplessly as tears began falling to the floor. "And then… he… he…"

Agent K stepped forward and had to support Kyoko as her friend's knees buckled beneath her. Shocked, Kanae saw the woman who had weathered so much tragedy and hardship in her life with a can-do attitude and near-idiotic levels of hope clutch Agent K's forearms as if clinging to a lifeline as she fell to the floor.

"He got shot," Kyoko sobbed. "And then we got separated."

In shock herself, Kanae couldn't stop Kyoko from dragging them both to the ground. 'Impossible… Agent T is… THE Agent T is–!'

"I don't even know…" The amber-eyed agent wailed, her voice hitching. "I don't even know if he's still… if he's still…"

Still alive?

"M-san…" Chiori murmured and knelt beside the other two LoveMe girls. The short-haired agent turned to look at Kanae. "K-san, what should we do?"

While sinking into despair, Kanae had a sudden thought. Frowning, Agent K turned to grip Kyoko by her quivering shoulders. Kanae's fingers dug into the young woman's arms. "Hey. Agent M. Did you see him die?"

Hiccuping, Kyoko shook her head and tried to wipe away her streaming tears. "N-No! But there were so many enemies–!"

Hearing her answer, Kanae breathed a sigh of relief, the weight on her chest instantly lighter. With a guy like Agent T, you'd have to bury him and hold a funeral, and he still might come back to life. She'd seen him get out of so many narrow scrapes before…

"You said you don't know if he's still alive?" Agent K asked, releasing her grip on Kyoko's shoulders. Suddenly she chopped Agent M over the head again and roared, "Of course he's still alive, you idiot!"

Chiori caught Kyoko as she jolted away, clutching her head again, eyes wide in shock at the sudden mood shift.

"Tsuruga Ren isn't going to be killed off by something like henchmen," Kanae continued, peevishly. She jabbed a finger at Kyoko. "You know that too. You believe in him. You're just scared."

"K-san…" Chiori glanced hesitantly at the dark-haired agent. "You shouldn't say stuff life that… For all we know, Agent T really might be–"

"I am scared." A whisper cut through the brewing argument. The two brunettes turned to look at their friend.

Kyoko was staring wide-eyed at the floor, arms crossed protectively over her chest, her hands desperately fisted in her sleeves. "I am scared… I don't want to believe, because what if I'm wrong?"

She turned to look up at Kanae, tears brimming in her amber eyes. "I knew this was a bad idea… Falling in love again. It's a thousand times worse than Sho. It hurts, Moko-san…"

Sighing, Agent K leaned forward and laid a heavy hand on her head. Instead of striking her again, Kanae rubbed her hair comfortingly. She muttered, "You coward… Just because it's hard, just because it hurts, just because you _get_ hurt, doesn't mean that you get to turn away."

Nodding, Kyoko sniffled and hiccuped, swiping at her tears.

"That's what commitment is!" Kanae bopped her friend playfully on the head one final time. She grumbled and tried to hide her grin as she said, "Did you think love was going to be some rosy fairytale? How naïve!"

"Most other couples just have to deal with somebody losing their job or disagreeing on whether or not to get a dog or something, though…" Chiori muttered under her breath.

Kanae shot her a glare.

Sighing, Agent A rubbed the back of her head, "Anyway… I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but practically speaking, we're back to square one then – rescuing a captive from enemy territory with only three operatives…"

Chiori paused to think, then listed off on her fingers. "Actually, we're at square negative five. We have no comms, no back-up, no intel, no invincible Agent T, no time – the vote is going to be in half an hour. Are we seriously going to take on the entirety of Henshin by ourselves?"

The room sank into silence. Chiori was speaking sense, but… But since when did the LoveMe group ever operate on common sense?

"Shut up! We are the LoveMe division!" Kanae leapt to her feet and tossed her long hair over one shoulder dramatically. "The most resilient trio! Despite being totally scorned and underestimated and stepped on by everyone, we still persist and survive–"

With flat eyes, Chiori looked at the tall operative striking an inspiring pose. Chiori muttered, "Agent K… is describing cockroaches."

"Mou!" Kanae shot the junior agent a frustrated glare and stamped her foot petulantly. "I'm no good at this motivation thing! Whatever! You know what I mean! He's definitely alive, and we'll get him back, no matter what!"

Unable to help herself, Kyoko chuckled a little, wiping the tears from her eyes. "You guys are right… Agent T wouldn't be killed off so easily."

"Right!" Kanae harrumphed. "That's what I've been saying all along."

Chiori just shook her head and gave a small smile.

"I want to…" The founding LoveMe member murmured, staring at her open hands before clenching them into fists. She looked up, eyes shining with conviction. "No, I _do_ believe in him."

"Alright, alright…" Agent A groaned and hoisted herself up, clearly inspired as well. "Let's go rescue T-san."

"But first–!" Both women looked at Kanae who was rummaging around in her gear pack. Agent K turned to Kyoko and dumped a pile of black clothing into her lap. From above, Kanae cast a haughty look down on the auburn-haired woman. "Change clothes. I can't be seen with someone running around in a frumpy janitor's outfit."

"K-san." Chiori wilted. "That's not exactly our number one priority…"

"Mou, it's about having dignity as an agent. And here," Kanae tossed two heavy handheld black sticks each about the size of a flashlight at Kyoko. Agent M caught them as the dark-haired operative shrugged and looked away, arms crossed. Kanae muttered, "I didn't know which ones you wanted, so I just grabbed whichever, so don't complain if they're not the ones you normally use–"

"Moko-san! A-san!" Kyoko leapt up and grabbed both of them into a tight embrace. As Kanae struggled away and Chiori laughed at their _tsundere_ companion, Kyoko gripped the black rods and grinned.

"Alright. Let's do this. The LoveMe Division is moving out!"

 **-x-**

From the glass viewing booth above the operating room, the smooth, deft movements of the surgeons and medical staff appeared more like a dance than the harried, life-saving battle that it probably was.

But was it really life-saving? That guy had just as much monstrous luck as his father – if the stories were to be believed. The bullet had hit him in just the right place, not causing much internal damage and not striking any vital organs. According to the head surgeon, the bullet just had to be fished out and the bleeding cauterized.

Delta allowed himself a small wry smile. What a monster…

As he was pondering the boy's luck, the mastermind heard soft footsteps approach from behind. Delta spared the other man's reflection a glance in the viewing booth's glass before refocusing on the operation concluding below.

"I really do wonder about you, Delta-san…" The dark-haired politician intoned as he stepped up to the window. "You've ruined so many innocent peoples' lives and probably didn't bat an eyelash… But the one man who is actively hunting you down to try and kill you, you step in and save."

Watching the doctors direct the nurses and surgical techs to dress the wound with swathes of gauze, Delta replied wryly, "I really do wonder about you as well, Councillor Toudou. Shouldn't you be at the Diet? I hear there's a very important vote happening today."

There was a small movement in the reflection of the glass as Toudou lifted a hand to push his glasses up. The politician offered Delta a polite smile. "I hear that the outcome of the vote has already been pre-arranged, so one or two missing Councillors isn't going to affect anything."

The mastermind spy merely hummed noncommittally and turned his attention back to the procedure below. The two men watched in silence as the doctors and nurses de-gloved and wheeled their still-sleeping patient out of the operating theater. The head surgeon turned at the door to look up and bowed deeply at the viewing booth.

"Isn't that Dr.–?"

"I extracted his daughter from a narcotics smuggling ring before a police bust. Saved her from half a lifetime in prison… and saved him from a lifetime of disgrace," Delta replied. He gave the world-famous trauma surgeon a small nod before watching the doctor exit. "This sort of thing is a little below his pay-grade, but I don't believe he minds being called in every now and then."

Beside him, the politician chuckled. "I suppose blackmail takes many forms. "

"Sometimes a carrot is more effective than a stick," the mastermind mused. He frowned. "But it's amazing how many people will only take a stick."

There was a moment of silence before Toudou turned toward Delta, leaning a shoulder up against the glass. "So has your partner offered _you_ a carrot or a stick?"

Refusing to turn and meet the other man's eyes, the mastermind looked down and chuckled. "Councillor Toudou, to have found that information out, you are a fearsome man indeed. No wonder Saena kept you around for so many years."

Toudou looked off to the side and adjusted his glasses again. "Through no lack in Mogami-san's efforts. I am just very stubborn. She couldn't get rid of me."

Hearing the subtle accusation in the other man's tone, Delta felt an uncomfortable weight settle in the pit of his stomach. He thought he'd locked these feelings of guilt away long ago, yet here they were again and again the past few days, rearing their ugly, regret-filled heads and causing him to act irrationally.

Whenever it came to Saena… to Makoto, he…

Like stuffing down garbage in a too-full trashcan, Delta quickly closed the lid on his emotions and turned back to face Toudou. "Why are you here, Councillor Toudou?"

Saena's colleague cocked his head to the side, regarding the mastermind carefully behind thin-rimmed glasses. He said slowly, "I am here to reassure myself that you are aware of your goal and mindful of the sacrifices necessary in order to achieve it."

Delta chuckled mirthlessly. "And no doubt, to reassure yourself that my sacrifices are not in conflict with the things you are trying to protect."

"Indeed." The politician pushed his glasses up on his nose – possibly a nervous tic, Delta noted.

Assuming a nonchalant posture, Delta tilted his head and gave a tight-lipped smile. "Be reassured, Councillor Toudou. At least in that regard, we are not enemies. Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be."

Glancing at the clock on the wall, the dark-haired mastermind strode for the exit. As he passed Toudou, something made Delta pause. The words he murmured as he brushed past the politician toward the exit made Toudou's eyes widen behind his glasses. However, before Toudou could respond, Delta had swept out the door and was gone.

 **-x-**

Kyoko decided that she definitely would avoid getting on Amamiya Chiori's bad side. It was an absolute priority from now on.

Several feet away, Chiori finally emerged from the bathroom, wiping her hands on a small towelette that she then tossed into the trash by the foot of the single-stalled bathroom door. As Agent A discreetly slid the metal door shut behind her, Kyoko caught a glimpse of the guard sprawled unconscious on the tiled floor. As the sliding door clicked shut, Agent M was pretty sure that the giant, burly man with the body habitus of a pro-wrestler was still actively foaming at the mouth as he lay there knocked out.

Coming back from the end of the hall where she'd been keeping watch, Kanae eyed the bathroom warily as Chiori slapped a hastily written 'Out of Order' sign on the door. Even from down the hall, she'd been able to hear the screams.

"My, my… A-san was …quite…" Kanae drifted off, searching awkwardly for the right euphemism. "…enthusiastic…"

Chiori shrugged. "This is what I did for the PSIA before joining the LME unit. The President doesn't let me do any of the _really_ bad stuff–"

'That _wasn't_ the really bad stuff?!' Kyoko and Kanae shared a quick sidelong glance.

"– But you have to practice when you can or else you lose your skills," Chiori finished lightly. She then pressed a finger to her chin and cutely smiled. "Like cooking or needlepoint!"

'That was definitely _NOT_ like cooking or needlepoint!'

Aloud, Agent K laughed nervously. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but why did he keep on screaming, 'Not the pancakes, please not the pancakes?"

In the middle of repacking what appeared to be a miniature steel bear trap and a yoyo back into her gear pack, Chiori froze. Then she spun around, lilting her head to the side and pressing a coy finger to her lips. She winked and smiled, the very picture of innocence. "That's a trade secret~!"

Kyoko laughed skittishly and tried to stop her body from instinctively recoiling a step or fifteen. 'Scary… Absolutely scary…'

Eager to change the subject, Agent M hazarded, "So… Did he say anything about T-san?"

Chiori shook her head sadly as she stuffed a coil of thick steel wire into her pack. "He was just small potatoes. Didn't really know that much, but he _did_ say there was a very important meeting happening soon. He gave me directions to the room."

"An important meeting…" Kanae mused, pressing a hand to her chin. "You don't think that would be Delta, do you?"

Frowning, Kyoko shook her head. "It probably is Delta. Nothing happens in Henshin without his say-so. If it's an important meeting, then he must be involved."

"But it's not Agent T," Agent K replied briskly. "We should probably move on and try to see if there are any other guards–"

"No." Kyoko's hands clenched into fists as she felt a sudden surge of anger. If it weren't for Delta and his damned scheming, then Ren would never have… She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She looked back up at her fellow LoveMe girls, her eyes flashing fire. "Let's cut to the chase. If you chop the head off the snake, the body will stop moving, right?"

Eyeing her, Kanae replied slowly, "That is true… And it could make finding Ren easier if all Delta's henchmen give up, but–"

"No 'but', Moko-san. We're doing this. I'm going to bring Delta down, stop the vote, and then beat the location of Agent T out of him," Kyoko responded brusquely and strode forward. Behind her, Chiori and Kanae shared a glance before Agent A began giving directions.

It took only two minutes to reach the room. The conference room wasn't particularly close; it was just as if the guards patrolling the halls had been halved.

As the trio of LoveMe girls crept up to the targeted room, Kyoko noted that even the relatively innocuous double doors to the conference room stood unguarded. Something just didn't feel right…

"We'll go for a surprise attack. Formation Trinity. On the count of three," Agent K whispered as the three girls arrayed themselves around the doors. "One… two…"

"Three!" The LoveMe girls shouted together and kicked in the doors, leaping forward with pistols raised. "Everyone, hands in the air!"

The conference room was a large cavernous affair, a long marble-topped table running down the middle. Behind the head of the table was an important-looking metal door. The cushioned black chair at the head of the table was conspicuously empty.

But the approximately forty or so chairs surrounding the table were all conspicuously occupied.

A group of mean looking, shady men and women sat there in stunned silence, regarding the LoveMe trio with expressions of shock that were quickly turning to hostility. From the faces Kyoko could quickly identify, the room appeared to be filled with each and every one of Delta's main Henshin agents.

Kanae laughed and smiled politely. "Our sincerest apologies. Wrong room."

As if on cue, all three girls performed a perfunctory bow, did an about-face, and attempted to exit out the double doors. Unfortunately for the Love Me division, the doors had shut automatically behind them, and as Kyoko tugged firmly on the handle of the door, she found it did not budge.

"Agent M, please open the doors," Kanae said, her polite smile still plastered on her face.

"My apologies, Agent K," Kyoko replied, also still smiling to hide her growing despair as she continued to jerk forcefully on the immovable door handle. "But the doors appear to have locked behind us."

"It's the intruders!" Someone in the room shouted from behind, clearly having gotten over his surprise. "Get them!"

The collective scraping of chairs on the tile floor cued the LoveMe trio to freeze. All three women heaved a collective sigh and turned back around, reaching for their weapons.

"My, my. What a hassle this is going to be," Chiori groused and began pulling on a pair of black leather fingerless gloves with metal studs at the knuckles.

"Mou, you had better pull your weight A-san," Kanae sniffed primly, drawing her pistol and one tonfa. As she pointed the gun into the crowd to slow them from rushing forward recklessly, she called back over her shoulder, "M-san, leave the small fry to us. You head for the door back there. It looks like someone important might be behind it. It could be Delta or even T-san."

Taking stock of the bizarre mixture of Yakuza leaders, black market dealers, and Interpol-listed anarchists, Kyoko reached for the black sticks in her belt loop. "Moko-san… Are you sure?"

Agent K snorted and whirled her tonfa expertly. She shook back her long black ponytail and shifted her pistol to point at the nearest tattooed yakuza member who had been trying to sneak up from the side. "It doesn't look like any of these cannon-fodder are armed or else we would be dodging bullets by now. But trust me. We'll fight them until our very last breath. They'll never take us alive!"

"Hey, hey. I said, don't lump me in with you!" Agent A grumbled back, bumping her fists together. Electricity sparked between the metal studs of her brass-knuckled gloves. "And beside, you can't die here either, K-san. Isn't Hiro-kun waiting for you back at the Ogatas' place?"

"I'm going to go for it, then. You two had better not die on me…" Kyoko growled. Eyes flashing amber fire, she flicked the switches on the two black rods in her belt. They hummed to life, and as she drew at the handles of the compact scabbards, the separated plates of the titanium alloy blades electronically magnetized together until she withdrew the two elongated ninjatou katana that shined a menacing silver in the harsh light.

Flicking one blade in a smooth practice arc and twirling the other, Agent M leveled a katana at the crowd in front of her. Golden fury glinted in her eyes.

"Hey, out of the way. I have someone I need to save."

 **\- 0:26 until re-vote -**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Japanese Notes:**

 **Tsundere** – A stereotypical character in Japanese literature/media that is cold initially (tsun) to hide their inner warmth and gushiness (dere). AKA: Kotonami Kanae

 **Ninjatou** – Straight short-sword used in popular modern media by ninja. In other words, imagine the two swords that Kyoko uses in her Momiji audition.

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG:**

 **Jellyfishhh** – Yay! Thanks so much for catching up with us! Glad to see that you're enjoying the journey so far!

 **Erza Tsuruga** – I misspelled your user name? Whaaat? I'm so sorry! Lol, my bad! And LOL, as for the cliffhangers, I'm just helping my readers stay healthy, yknow? Nothing like a cliffie to get the ol' ticker pounding! Haha Is life good-busy or bad-busy? You know how sometimes being busy can either be productive and uplifting or defeating and exhausting? Hope it's more of the former and none of the latter! And sorry~! You asked for a sooner update and I actually updated later this month than usual T_T Ya girl also got busier lol

 **Brennakai** – You're back! I was like, "Hmmm, brennakai's not here for Chapter 40?" To answer your question about Ch 40, it was Lory putting on the show, but Ruto was in the background messing with the lights and manning the cameras, letting Lory know where to move and when. As for your Ch 41 question, Yes! Sho did help delay the vote. Don't think a lot of people noticed, but the re-vote timer went up by 30 minutes or so, meaning that Sho bought Kyoko an extra half an hour. Thanks again brennakai! Good to have you back!

 **ReneeFee** – Hahaha, ohhh man! Don't worry! At least my story is set to end sometime before 2019 ends, but as for Sensei's Skip Beat… Well… Let's hope that the characters at least kiss for real before she gets sick or something and can't write anymore T_T Thanks ReneeFee! Your fury at the cock-block shows me you're enjoying your time here :) Hopefully! Haha

 **CrystallineX** – I originally was at a loss for what to include in that reunion scene, until I re-read a few Skip Beat chapters and was like… Even if Ren were trying to confess to Kyoko, A) Ren would totally flub it like the love idiot that he is and B) Kyoko would definitely misunderstand everything because she's in like unrealistic levels of denial. (Hence the flower ring scene from this past month's manga chapter! ARGH! KYOKO WHY!) Thanks for reading and reviewing CrystallineX!

 **Lillyannp** – Soooorrryyyyy! Hahaha

 **Guest** – Thanks! I'm really happy that you look forward to every post! Means a lot to me ;,)

 **MWEH** – Haha, what do you mean? Didn't everyone want a flashback to Bo and Ren? LOL jkjk please don't throw rocks at me xD As for the misconception in the beginning, I originally wasn't going to include it but then I stopped and thought about Ren's clumsiness in love and Kyoko's Mariana's Trench depth of denial and was like, "Yeah… This would definitely happen" hahaha Sorry the month's wait was longer than usual, but hopefully it was worth it?

As for the manga, I'm also kinda sad there wasn't any real progression. On the Skip Beat FB group I'm on, a couple of members were posting things like, "I'm starting to doubt that Ren and Kyoko will ever get together" and "Wouldn't it make sense that Sensei would put Kyoko and Sho together" and I was thinking like STOP IT YOU DOUBTING FOOLS! *cries* Always happy to have a frustrated but hopeful purist like yourself around so I can maintain my levels of sanity! Haha Hopefully Sho doesn't take up TOO much time next month *rolls eyes* Geez, you can have character development once Ren and Kyoko have some romantic development! Sheesh!

 **Guineapigs1** – Haha, you totally called it then, if you knew Ren wasn't going to make it out of the warehouse! You must've seen your fair share of K-dramas, J-dramas, anime, and spy movies. And ta-da~! Ren's not dead! Dude, I would get hunted down by all of the people reading this fic if I killed off Ren. I would take it upon myself to commit seppuku if I killed off Ren. Not to diminish the narrative tension, but let's be real here. LOL Besides it's not a spoiler because you've already read the chapter so you know he survived his gunshot wound. ;3 Thanks Guineapigs1! See you next time!


	43. Chapter 43

Hello loyal readers!

I'm so excited to share today's chapter with you! It's one that I've been dreading to write because the outcome had the potential to be so awesome, but it was going to require a lot of thought and intent.

Just a caveat before we begin the epic fight, I set up Kimiko's character when the Momiji arc was still gathering steam. I think I first had the idea to handle her character as a foil for Kyoko when in the manga, she was just an ambiguous blog post and a foreboding name. Since then, the Momiji arc and Nakamura-sensei really fleshed her out to have much different motivations than I have given her in my story. Hopefully everyone doesn't really mind my version of Kimiko! She's still the arrogant, manipulative b**** everyone loves to hate.

For any writers out there, I highly recommend Super Eye Patch Wolf's "What Makes a Fight Scene Interesting" video on YouTube. He explains how the most intriguing fight scenes in cinema and anime aren't just flowery kicks and gunshots, but a deeply moral dialogue and debate between two characters. Loved it and hope you do too!

For now, Merry early Christmas and see you all next month! (Unless I can get my next plot bunny for **All the World's a Stage** out onto paper.)

Enjoy!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH43**

 **\- 0:26 until re-vote -**

"Get the hell outta my waaaay!" Kyoko shouted as she sprinted across the marble tabletop in the center of the conference room. Agent M leapt forward and landed a solid flying kick across the jaw of an infamous black market munitions dealer from Osaka. The burly gangster flew back and crash-landed into several other Henshin agents who were trying to clamber onto the table to block her way.

Rolling to dispel the force and keep her momentum, Kyoko used her ninjatou to slash at the Achilles' tendon of a renowned female mercenary who screeched and stumbled back, blood flashing from her ankle. Hearing others clamber onto the table behind her only to find themselves violently engaged by the other two LoveMe members, Agent M continued to dash forward until she jumped off the end of the marble tabletop to reach her goal: the door.

Her hand immediately flew to the handle – but there was no handle.

Hand awkwardly frozen in the air, Kyoko stared at the door – no handle, no knob, just a blank metal slab in the wall. In her confusion, she noticed to the right of the door there was an unmarked metal pad in a hollowed out recess with a small readout screen above. The pad beeped and flashed a red color, lit from beneath.

"A handprint scanner?" Kyoko wondered, trying to catch her breath. She would need someone's handprint – a Henshin agent's hand.

However, Kyoko's ears perked up as she heard a yell behind her. The auburn-haired agent whirled around and ducked just in time to avoid a roundhouse kick to the face.

Former high school gang leader and current smuggler, Murasame Taira bobbed and weaved next to the edge of the marble conference table, his fists up and ready for a fight.

Murasame smirked, his dark curls plastered to his forehead with perspiration. "I _knew_ it was you in the janitor's closet! Where's your asshole brother, Miss Setsuka Heel-san?"

Agent M frowned sourly.

"If you knew it was me, why didn't you detain me then and there?" Kyoko grumbled half under her breath.

Murasame's smirk faltered. "Well – you see – Manaka was rushing me and – I just, you know–"

His guard slipped slightly, and that was all the opening Agent M needed.

"Sorry, Tau, but I don't have time for this," Kyoko growled and rushed forward, swords swiping across. To dodge, Murasame jumped back. However, this was exactly what Kyoko wanted.

While Tau was suspended in the air, Kyoko pushed off the ground and flipped forward to close the distance, using her momentum to axe kick him down across one unguarded shoulder. His hands shot up to block, but he was too late.

Hands preoccupied, Murasame plummeted straight down, his back hitting the marble tabletop hard as he got the wind knocked out of him. Kyoko watched his eyes widen as they focused on her katana blades falling aimed directly at his face.

Murasame Taira – formerly known as Akazame, the Red Rain, for wherever he appeared a red rain was sure to fall upon his enemies– uttered a very unintentional and unmanly shriek.

At the last second Kyoko twitched her swords to the side, and the special titanium alloy skewered straight through the marble, mere millimeters from Murasame's ears.

"Aha… About that…" Tau laughed nervously and promptly fainted, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head.

Wasting no time, Kyoko grunted as she dragged his unconscious body off the table and managed to flop Murasame's hand onto the scanner plate.

The pad beeped and flashed red. The screen readout above the plate read, "Fingerprints verified. Access denied. ID: Tau".

Frowning in frustration, Kyoko had a brief moment to wonder if anyone in the room would even be able to open the door. Would she have to go one by one and drag each unconscious mobster and assassin and mercenary to the door, only to find that no one had the authorization to open it?

Fast footsteps behind her caught her attention. Kyoko turned away from the door again and had to leap back to dodge the chair that a short, brown-haired woman had swung at her.

Kyoko's eyes flashed to her pair of katana, still embedded in the conference table, then back to Manaka who was rearing back with a girly yell to take another swing. Side-stepping to her right, Kyoko ducked under the chair swing and leapt forward. She planted her hand down on the metal plate by the door and used that support to land a two-footed drop kick into Manaka's sternum.

With a feminine yell, Omicron tumbled backward, limbs entangled with the chair. Apparently noticing the irked agent approaching above her, Manaka's eyes cinched shut, and she threw her hands up defensively.

"Kyah! Don't hurt me, scary lady! Please!"

Kyoko sighed and was about to ask Manaka if she knew who could open the door when Agent M heard an upbeat three-tone sound from behind. She whirled back around. The pad glowed green. The door smoothly slid open.

Instantly, Kyoko shot forward, wrenched her weapons out of the table, and was about to exit through the door when she screeched to a halt. She turned around to look back at her friends.

Kanae was in the middle of breaking her retractable metal tonfa over the shin of an attacking yakuza captain. There was a loud _crack_ and a howl of pain. The man's leg below the knee was suddenly pointed the entirely wrong way.

"Tch." Kanae examined her bent tonfa before sighing and hurling the broken weapon in the face of her incapacitated and now unconscious enemy. The dark-haired agent flashed an annoyed glare at Kyoko as she drew her spare melee weapon and snapped, "What are you waiting around for? Your drama rerun to come back on? Hurry up and stop looking back!"

"Yeah, it's distracting!" Chiori called out as she rabbit punched some middle-aged, balding drug lord in the temple, the electricity sizzling in her gauntlet as she knocked him out cold. The short-haired agent calmly reached to the back of her belt for her pistol as she smoothly shot out the kneecap of a mercenary who had been trying to sneak up behind her. "Just go get Agent T or Delta – whoever comes first!"

Her heart in her throat, Agent M nodded. Sharing a determined smile with her two friends, Kyoko stepped through the door.

"Hey, scary lady."

Agent M paused, half-turning. Manaka was on the floor, trying to poke Murasame back into consciousness. The surveillance expert mumbled off to the side, eyes flicking up to Kyoko's and then back down in embarrassment.

"Sorry I was so clingy. I was just… jealous or something." Manaka grumbled over her shoulder, her cheeks puffed out in a pout. "You look good with Cain-san…"

A real smile broke across Kyoko's face as the door slid shut.

"Thank you."

Unknown to anyone, as the door closed behind Kyoko, the handprint scanner blinked green twice more before shutting off, the readout next to the scanner fading from its unread and unappreciated message: "Fingerprints verified. Access granted. ID: Omega."

 **-x-**

Whatever Kyoko expected to find behind the metal door, this certainly wasn't it.

Creeping warily down the carpeted central aisle of the cavernous room, Agent M sheathed her two katana and instead drew Ren's pistol. Flanking her on either side of the plush red velvet walkway were glass boxes raised on thick rectangular metal pedestals.

Kyoko peered into one before passing on. It was an engagement ring, the diamond too small and roughshod and the band too scuffed to look entirely at home in its fancy glass case and purple satin holder.

The next box held an old, weathered photograph of two Japanese men standing in front of an official-looking concrete building shaking hands. The younger one dated the picture with his casual 1980's suit but the older one was completely out of place, wearing an ostentatious, obviously handcrafted British palace guard's uniform. The two were smiling, even though their photographed eyes had been scratched out with black marker.

Looking down the line toward the end of the hall, Kyoko noted that each and every box held a somewhat mundane object encased in polished glass and resting on a bed of unblemished satin. It almost felt like… a museum of sorts, the significance of which was obvious only to its curator.

Suppressing a shudder, Kyoko broke away, feeling unnerved. Perhaps it was the harsh, artificial lights that shone down onto each box and not much else. Spotlights ran along a series of sturdy narrow catwalks suspended from the high ceiling, casting stark light and shadows on each of the museum cases.

As she slowly started forward again, Agent M quietly released the clip on Ren's pistol to check her ammo count. Out of the original eighteen bullets, after her brief firefight in the warehouse, only six rounds remained. Swallowing hard, Kyoko refocused on the task at hand. A frosted glass double door at the end of the aisle beckoned.

Still, the silence as she stepped forward was unnerving. Though her only companions were the mute, encaged artifacts, her heart beat raggedly in her chest. It was as if the entire room was holding its breath.

That was why – when it went off – the gunshot seemed ten times as loud and shocking.

Kyoko felt a scorching pain blossom in her upper arm. It took a moment for her brain to register past the surprise and confusion. She had been shot.

Another bullet whizzed past her head, and Kyoko ducked on instinct, clutching her firearm and scrambling back. She dove for cover behind one of the tall metal pedestals just as the glass case above exploded in a fury of glass shrapnel.

Breathing hard, Kyoko clutched her left arm and backed herself up against the sturdy metal stand. Blood dripped to the floor, and she grimaced as a wave of pain tore through her. Beyond her anguish, she heard a voice cut like a knife through the silence of the room.

"My, my… If it isn't _New_ Agent M."

Kyoko froze. In the reflection of the glass case across from her hiding spot, Kyoko saw Morizumi Kimiko emerge from the shadows across the room and turn to saunter up the central aisle. As the assassin brandished her pistol, she tipped her head to the side, long black hair and straight fringe framing her face.

"What a coincidence meeting you _here_ of all places," Kimiko crooned mockingly. "Of course, you're on your way to see _him_."

As Kyoko quickly tore off a strip of black cloth from the hem of her shirt with a shaking right hand and tightened it around her arm with the help of her teeth, she grunted out, a grim smile on her lips, "Morizumi-san, you changed you hair. Did you have a recent break up?"

In the reflection of the glass, Kimiko stopped abruptly, almost robotically, the condescending smirk appearing stuck on her face as her face flushed angrily from her neck to the tip of her forehead. Agent M took a deep breath, gathered her feet beneath her, turned out of cover, and fired.

Kyoko's shot just missed her. Kappa immediately ducked and dodged, disappearing behind another pedestal across the aisle. Kyoko quickly turned back, hidden in her own cover.

"Five," she breathed, tightening her one-handed grip on the pistol.

Across the room, there came a high-pitched, mocking laugh. Kimiko cooed, "Bravo! Agent T actually came to your rescue after all! Congratulations!"

Kyoko frowned. There was something not quite right with Kimiko's response.

"But," Kappa smugly called out, "I heard that jerk got himself shot and captured trying to get you out!"

Wincing, Kyoko raised her wounded arm to stabilize her gun and peeked around the corner. The aisle was empty.

"Serves him right!" The assassin abruptly snarled. Suddenly, a head popped out from behind one of the pedestals, and Kyoko yelped as a smattering of bullets ricocheted off the side of her cover.

Breathing heavily at the near miss and the adrenaline pumping through her veins, Kyoko almost didn't see the dark blur as a shadow raced down the aisle toward her. Agent M fired twice at the moving target before it dodged back behind another display case only two away from hers, still across the aisle.

Three.

"Where is T-san?" Kyoko found herself demanding.

"Poor, poor Agent M," the assassin crooned. "She went looking for her _boyfriend_ and found the wrong person entirely!"

"Where are you keeping him?" The auburn-haired agent snarled, gathering her feet beneath her.

"Well, he definitely isn't _here_ ," Kappa snorted. "I thought that'd be obvious by now."

If Ren wasn't here in this room, like Kimiko was mockingly implying, then… Kyoko's eyes drifted to the frosted opaque glass of the double doors at the end of the hall.

Taking a deep breath in, Agent M tightened her grip on the firearm and waited.

"Sorry, but it looks like your prince is in another castle!" The dark-haired assassin began another giggling fit.

' _Now_!'

Agent M leapt forward, center of gravity ducked low as she flew across the aisle, somersaulted over the uncarpeted wooden floor, and spied her target. Kimiko's eyes were wide as she froze, mid-chortle.

One amber eye closed for greater accuracy, Kyoko shot twice.

Kappa screamed as a live round pierced through the center of her left hand. Her gun clattered to the floor.

Moving as swiftly as she could, Kyoko dashed forward, her right hand drawing its short, straight ninjatou.

To her credit, no matter how 'off' Kimiko seemed, she was still a field-trained, battle-hardened pro. The Henshin agent's eyes flashed fury as she snatched her bloodied pistol off the floor with her uninjured hand, aimed, and quickly loosed several shots at Kyoko.

Low and fast, Kyoko heard the bullets whiz by and winced as something stung her cheek right before she swung downward with her katana.

Kimiko tried to block the swing with her gun. Unfortunately for her, the LME unit has made some leaps and bounds with their tech after her resignation. Kyoko's special titanium alloy blade sliced through the firearm with a piercing metallic grind.

However, unfortunately for Kyoko, as she brought Ren's pistol up, her last bullet in its chamber to end the matter, Kimiko's other hand flew forward, fingers pointed to claw at the hastily tied cloth over Agent M's bullet wound.

Pain flaring like a blinding plume, Kyoko yelled as she yanked her arm away. Her gun flew out of her grasp, skittering down the aisle. She briefly saw it coast across the room beyond the final two pedestals before a mechanical hum sounded in the air.

A latticework of bright red lasers burst from the shadows in the walls, creating a tightly knit barricade separating Kyoko from the exit at the end of the hall.

Instinctively ducking under the half-gun Kimiko hurled at her, Agent M's eyes widened in horror. Kyoko knew that if her own gun hadn't tripped the sensor, and she had made a dash for the door, she'd be mincemeat by now.

"You thought I wouldn't have made preparations to ensure you never got to _him_?" A mocking voice called out.

Recovering her stance, Kyoko's eyes locked onto the dark-haired assassin who had staggered over to another glass cabinet, this one longer than the rest. Inside, on a polished metal stand lay a long, cruelly curved nodachi sword. The traditional samurai katana must have been only two heads shorter than the assassin herself. Kimiko turned a dark, crooked smile at Kyoko. Then she shattered the glass case with the butt of her broken gun.

Agent M didn't have time for this. She had to get through those lasers and get to Ren. Kyoko's eyes darted about her environment, calculating. The laser fence shimmered and sparked in the air, much higher than she could ever hope to jump. Agent M cursed under her breath as her gaze drew upward, then her eyes widened. The catwalk of spotlights lay right above the laser grid. If she could get up there and jump down onto the other side…

But how to get up there? There had to be a maintenance ladder – Kyoko's eyes flew across periphery of the room.

There! It was right across the hall from Kimiko, but Agent M thought she could make it if she had a decent head start.

Kappa had just picked up the scabbard of the great sword when Agent M bolted across the room.

"Don't even think about it!" Kimiko screeched behind her. "I'm here to make sure you never get through that door."

Kyoko's panted breaths sounded harsh in her ears, and her heart hammered in her chest. She sprinted for the ladder, sheathing her ninjatou as she ran. Behind her, she could hear the violent footfalls as Kimiko caught up. Black-painted metal rungs in sight, Kyoko leapt for the highest rung she could and lifted her legs off the floor. Biting back a scream, she felt the strain on her wounded left arm, but clung on tightly.

Below her, Kappa bellowed and leapt as well, however the heavy long-sword on her back limited her reach. Kimiko's fingers angrily scraped the bottom of Kyoko's black boot before gravity brought the assassin back down.

Hearing her enemy crash to the floor, Kyoko swallowed her pain and began climbing. Trying to block out her left arm screaming in agony, Kyoko desperately pulled herself up, rung after rung, step after step, almost two stories up until her hands finally closed on the metal surface of the narrow catwalk.

She was lifting her foot to step onto the platform when a sharp tug almost sent her tumbling through the opening and back to the floor below.

With a yell, Kyoko instinctively clung to the metal grating of the platform for dear life, her fingers protesting at the sudden strain. Her other foot lost its grip on the ladder and pinwheeled in the air. Through the grate, Agent M could see Kappa had somehow caught up with her and was pulling on her foot from below. On instinct, Kyoko kicked out and thrashed, feeling her boot wrench itself from the dark-haired woman's infuriated grasp.

Ignoring the pain, Kyoko swung her lower body to gain momentum and hoisted herself up through the hole in the catwalk, pulling herself with her forearms onto the platform.

Breathing heavily and scrambling up, the wounded agent backed away from the entrance to the catwalk. Without her normal gear pack and with the spotlights bolted in place, Kyoko had nothing to throw at Kimiko to slow her down. And Agent M knew she wasn't going to waste one of her katana.

If she missed, the range difference between just one of her ninjatou and Kappa's nodachi would spell instant death. Turning her back and running from the long-reaching sword would also mean death.

So she took the only option available to her. As Kyoko awaited her opponent, she breathed deeply and flicked the switches on her specially made short swords. Just like Master Uesugi had taught her, she evened her breathing and awaited her enemy.

As Kimiko's dark head cleared the entrance to the metal walkway, Kyoko drew her two ninjatou fluidly, taking a solid defensive stance. At this clear provocation, Kappa looked down her nose at the LME agent and with a sneer, drew the longsword from its sheath on her back. The nodachi's edge flashed dangerously, under-lit by the spotlights below as Kappa ducked under the scabbard's leather strap to toss it aside.

Flecks of blood dripped to the ground as Kimiko raised her injured hand to grip the katana's long hilt. There was a moment of thick, tense silence as both women studied the other. Then Kappa moved.

With a frighteningly fast stride, Kimiko had nearly closed the distance between them, taking a wide stance and fluidly whipping the sword up and around her head and throwing her whole body into a diagonal slash forward. Moving on base instinct, Kyoko managed to get her swords up in time to block the left-sided attack, her ninjatou moving in parallel to parry the heavier sword away. There was a high-pitched metallic grind as the three swords connected.

The beginnings of a foreboding grin twitching at the corners of her mouth, the dark-haired assassin smoothly transitioned into an upward thrust of her sword, aimed straight at Kyoko's blind spot.

Agent M could only duck, her swords coming up to block the next blow to her head before she could throw the weight of the attack off and stagger back. Trying to quiet her breathing, the auburn-haired agent eyed Kappa, her swords flying back up into guard in parallel, body turned sideways to minimize her target. The assassin's strikes were so… ferocious, so angry.

Master Uesugi always said you could tell what your opponent thought about you when you traded blows with a sword. Kyoko could tell: Kimiko despised her with every fiber of her being.

Watching with eyes full of dark fire, Kimiko's grin slid more and more across her face. She raised her sword and slid a smooth hand across its beautifully deadly surface, her fingertips grazing the artistic waves of folded Japanese steel.

"What's wrong?" Kappa crooned, her grin and wide eyes now borderline manic. "Aren't you stronger because the power of _love_?"

With her final, snarled word, Kimiko hefted the sword again and delivered a wide, heavy sweep aimed at Kyoko's left side. Agent M's left bicep cried out in pain as the reverberations from the hit shot down her blocking ninjatou and into her wounded arm.

Gritting her teeth, Kyoko blocked hit after hit, most of them aimed at her left side. Finally gaining enough distance to leap back and recollect herself, Kyoko desperately tried to catch her breath, every movement of her left arm an agony. At this rate, she would drop her sword, her left arm felt so weak.

Either Kimiko's sword-fighting style favored the left, or... She was doing it on purpose.

Agent M's eyes narrowed at the assassin who was tying a strip of cloth over her own injured left hand. The resting nodachi gleamed in the light, the folded Japanese steel holding true against her own sturdy titanium swords.

Except… Kyoko's eyes widened. It was hard to tell in the dim light but there appeared to be a divot, a small imperfection in the blade's smooth surface.

If it was real, Kyoko decided as she glanced down at her own unblemished swords, it must have been from that first strike. Well, if Kimiko was going to focus on her weak point, then two could play at that game.

"Love is trash!" With a fury-laced battle cry, the dark-haired assassin hoisted her sword again and dashed forward, hacking and slashing with startling control and precision.

However, focus renewed, Kyoko blocked each of the strikes at a particular point on Kimiko's sword. As she countered a particularly vicious thrust aimed at her gut, Kyoko couldn't help herself as she shot back, "If love is trash, why do you seduce men to kill them?"

Her opponent grit her teeth, eyes wide and enraged. "I do that BECAUSE love is trash! Love is just a tool to get what you want."

Kimiko swung forward again, and Kyoko dodged by rolling back, shoulder striking the metal walkway beneath them. Kappa grinned darkly and snarled, "That's what Agent T taught me."

Eyes narrowed, Kyoko lowered her center of gravity and dashed forward, retorting, "It's not his fault that he didn't return your feelings."

At her words, Kimiko's eyes widened further and her smirk contorted into an ugly snarl. Moving fast, Kyoko easily used her right-handed sword to sweep aside the nodachi's hasty slice, letting the heavy sword get carried away with its own momentum, leaving Kappa defenseless. Kyoko's left sword swung up from below.

Kimiko barely dodged, throwing her head back at the last second, her dark-dyed fringe flying up and back. Stumbling backward, Kappa's spare hand flew up to her forehead where a slow trickle of blood oozed down between her eyes. Belatedly, short strands of straight black hair fluttered down around the assassin like pieces of grotesque confetti. Past her parted fingers, Kimiko glared at the LME agent, her once straight bangs now sliced into asymmetrical hanging locks.

"He never lied to you," Agent M growled, settling back into a strong stance, one hand defending and one poised to attack, her eyes flashing amber fire. "You just made up this fantasy in your head and ran with it."

At her words, Kappa's eyes widened in pure fury, her hand gripping her face tighter and tighter until it flew off and away, trailing flecks of blood. With an animalistic scream, Kimiko flew forward, sword swinging wildly.

"SHUT UP! Who the hell are you to preach to me!" Kappa screeched, flailing widely with her blade and appearing to grow more and more agitated with every slash that Kyoko blocked. "Your stupid childhood friend's betrayal should've scarred YOU for good!"

Aiming for that midpoint on the nodachi, Kyoko felt the angry, hate-filled strikes reverberate up her arms.

"Yet you keep crawling back to the emotion of love!" Kimiko shrieked, not appearing to care that some of her sloppy strikes were now hitting the chest-high metal guardrail that ran the length of the catwalk. "You're WEAK! Can't you see? Ren is just going to hurt you AGAIN!"

Sweeping aside a particularly hasty thrust, Kyoko stepped back. Watching Kappa struggle to stand and catch her breath after swinging the heavy sword so ferociously, Kyoko felt an uncomfortable sense of familiarity creep through her. But things were different now…

"You're not wrong," Kyoko murmured softly.

Kappa watched her through dark, narrowed eyes, a myriad of emotions cycling over the assassin's face.

"Throughout our lives," Kyoko admitted with a small laugh, "we are probably going to accidentally hurt each other again and again… But I believe in him, and I know he believes in me. That commitment – that's real love."

By this time, Kimiko's head was ducked, her swordpoint drooping to the floor. Her slim shoulders shook, as if crying. Feeling pity for the girl, Kyoko slowly dropped her guard.

Then Kimiko's eyes flashed up. Her shoulders weren't shaking with tears. They were shaking in anger. Kyoko scarcely had enough time to get her swords up again to block the nodachi's violent swing from decapitating her. Instead the crazed woman's sword bit into Kyoko's upper right arm before she was able to parry it away.

Facial expression shifting briefly to hungry satisfaction at the drawn blood before morphing back into dark anger, Kimiko swung forward again, impossibly faster than before. She screamed, "WHY DID HE CHOOSE YOU!"

Kyoko grimaced at the renewed strength behind the strike and stumbled backward on the catwalk – "WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT YOU ANYWAY?" – The auburn-haired agent barely managed to block the next swing before righting herself.

"WASN'T I PRETTIER?"

Slash.

"WASN'T I A BETTER AGENT?"

Slice.

"WASN'T I LOVEABLE?"

Knocked off-balance and sent scrambling again, Kyoko found herself desperately blocking the last attack, swords locked in an X, stopping Kimiko's longer sword from above. With a scream of rage, Kappa pushed Kyoko backward, and Agent M found herself caged in, her back blocked by the metal guardrail.

The metal of the sword edges grinding together, Kyoko's eyes widened as she felt her strength faltering. Kimiko's sword slipped down past Agent M's guard to slice into Kyoko's shoulder. The assassin laughed crazily, apparently rejoicing in her inevitable victory.

Gritting her teeth, Kyoko pushed back, every fiber of muscle in her body straining. She ground out, "Tsuruga-san may have hurt you on accident…"

 _A kimono-clad girl stood in a metal vault and proclaimed her vengeance on the sneering heir._

Kyoko's grip on her katana tightened as she felt the nodachi's blade slip out of her shoulder. She continued, her voice growing stronger, "But the way you react is your own responsibility."

 _A tall, dark-haired man strangled a hooded figure on the top of a cargo ship, a ghoulish, evil smile plastered on a face that Kyoko no longer recognized._

Centimeter by centimeter, Kyoko pushed her swords up, giving her space as she grunted out, "It's always easier to hate than to forgive."

' _What about you? Are you going to just give up?' Her senpai had asked. She hadn't had an answer for him and had let him go. She had let both of them go, almost to their own destruction._

"It's always easier to stay stuck in the past than to run forward into the future." Kyoko's amber eyes flashed to connect with the assassin's wide dark ones.

"Sh-shut up!" Kimiko cried. Kyoko was given the impression that if Kappa's hands hadn't been occupied, they would've flown up to cover her ears.

With a small, pitying smile, Kyoko regarded the proud girl. She said simply, "You're just a coward."

Unleashing another scream of fury, Kimiko leaned her full body weight into the sword. Eyes wide and desperate, she squalled, "Why won't you just BREAK!"

Kyoko glanced down at the nodachi. Perfect.

Taking a deep breath in, Kyoko flashed Kimiko a wide grin. "Because I'm stronger than that!"

In one lightning-quick motion, Kyoko brought her left hand back and with a battle cry, brought it smashing down onto the nearly imperceptible notch and widening spiderweb crack on the long sword. The Japanese steel creaked, groaned, and finally with a metallic scream, shattered mid-blade.

Still pushing with all her might, Kimiko's momentum propelled her suddenly forward and downward, and with no more ninjatou to stop her, Kimiko found herself pitching through the gap between the catwalk and the handrail. Her broken blade plummeted to the ground nearly two stories below, and her body followed.

However at the last second, a hand caught Kappa's wrist in a strong grip. On the walkway above, Kyoko lay on her belly, hand outstretched to grasp Kimiko's wrist.

Eyes wide, Kimiko dangled there as Kyoko strained to pull her back up. The dark-haired girl whimpered, "W-Why?"

Choosing to ignore Kappa in favor of focusing her drained energy, Kyoko merely grunted as she managed to pull Kimiko's wrist up to the guardrail.

Kimiko began to thrash. She screamed, "Stop it!"

Continuing on in silence, Kyoko pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her back pocket – a parting gift from Amamiya-san – and clapped one end onto Kimiko's wrist and the other end onto the railing.

"What are you doing?" Kimiko continued to screech and fight, her body still half-dangling off the catwalk.

Kyoko easily ducked under the sloppy kick aimed at her neck, picked one of her katana up from the floor, and stepped on Kimiko's offending foot. The short sword sliced through Kimiko's pants leg at the ankle, driving into the catwalk up to the ninjatou's hilt and trapping the girl's leg in place. Enraged, Kappa screeched again and tried to swing her other fist at Kyoko.

Agent M merely caught it in her free hand and used her spare katana to pin Kimiko's wrist to the ground.

Irate, Kimiko thrashed and screamed. When she realized that she was trapped and could not move, she glared up at Kyoko, her dark eyes full of venom and screamed, "The only difference between you and me is that HE chose you!"

This finally caused Kyoko to pause. As she gazed down at the dark-haired girl, Kyoko had a bizarre feeling as if she were looking into a parallel universe and seeing a clouded image of a not-so-distant future. She didn't like what she saw.

For all that Sho's selfish arrogance had cost her, deep down inside, Kyoko knew that she had ended up net positive. After all, his fake love helped start her down the road to realize what true love looked like.

Turning to the still squirming Kimiko, Kyoko shook her head slowly.

"The difference between us is that I turned my poison into a strength," Kyoko gave the dark-haired assassin a small, sad smile. "But you let it eat you alive."

With that parting line, Agent M ran the last few meters to the end of the catwalk above the laser grid and leapt off it, easily clearing the humming lasers and landed rolling across the floor by the glass double doors.

Above her, Kimiko continued to scream, enraged, yelling at Kyoko to stop and come back here! Ignoring the girl, Kyoko stooped to pick up her long-forgotten pistol. She checked the clip: still one shot left.

"You're wrong!" Kimiko continued to screech, her voice strained and cracking from so much yelling. "There's no way you're going to save him that way!"

Pushing through the frosted glass, Kyoko let the doors close and silence the girl behind her as she murmured to herself, "Hang on, T-san! I'm almost there!"

 **-x-**

Ren's eyes opened slowly. It was disorienting and worrisome to wake up in an unfamiliar bed with no recollection of how he'd gotten there. At least the bed was decently soft. Ren's eyes flicked to the side.

But unfortunately, the door had bars on it.

Groaning, Agent T finally mustered the energy to sit up but had to abruptly stop as a wave of nauseating pain crested over him. His side felt as if it had been set on fire and punched a hundred times by Uesugi Hiou – at the same time. His hand crawled over to his flank. Instead of blood, like he'd feared, he felt the clean coarseness of gauze.

Oh yeah. He'd been shot.

Panting slightly and blinking blearily past some kind of sedative that he'd clearly been dosed with, Ren drew his knees up before shifting them over, straightening his legs so they were hanging off the side of the bed. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Ren closed his eyes and tried to remember.

 _He got shot. He gave Kyoko his comm link and watch. He watched her pleading amber eyes fill with tears. And his heart simultaneously broke and burst with happiness as he finally told her the truth. Then shooting, more shooting, hiding for cover. He heard a noise above him. A dark figure – a guy in a black coat? – dropped down from above. Then… darkness…_

Ren's eyes fluttered open. He couldn't recall anything else.

But this was no time for thinking. He had to get to Kyoko.

Taking a couple deep breaths to solidify himself, Ren sat up, feet dangling over the side of the bed. Pausing again to clutch his side in hopes of soothing the shooting agony, Agent T had two brief thoughts.

One: who treated his gunshot wound?

And two: how the hell was he going to get out of this cell when he could barely get himself out of bed?

There was a muffled shout from behind the door. Ren's ears perked up. The shouting crescendoed, punctuated by a smattering of gunfire. Not wanting to be caught unawares, Agent T struggled to his feet.

Just then, the door burst open, bright light pouring into his cell from the outside. Unprepared, Ren shied away, raising an arm against the sudden brightness, but he could see a feminine figure silhouetted in the doorway.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, Ren's eyes widened at her unexpected appearance.

"M-Mogami–?"

The woman in the doorway staggered into the room, gun limp in her hands. Ren could see the bodies of two guardsmen behind her as she slammed the door shut.

Her hands – shaking, he noticed – dropped the semiautomatic rifle with a clatter to the cement floor. Breathing heavily, she stumbled but as she tripped, Ren was able to step forward in time to catch her.

"What are you doing here?" Frowning, Agent T gently lowered the woman to the floor. "…Councillor Mogami."

Waving him away as she collected herself, the middle-aged politician frowned up at him, her dark hair askew in her bun. Flecks of blood stained her white blouse. Saena attempted a wry smile before the expression became swallowed up in her furrowed brow.

"My apologies. I'm probably not the Mogami you were hoping for."

 **-x-**

All around the room, the rows of auditorium-like seats had long desks in front of them, each row sunk on a lower level than the desks before them. Each of the desks was an empty, black surface and every single chair in the three-dozen or so rows was empty.

As Kyoko held the pistol up and ready, she descended the central staircase slowly toward the small clearing at the bottom of the room. At the very center of the room, towering over the clearing and the seats, a large screen shone a blank white, the only illumination in otherwise darkness. She glanced back. The only entrance or exit appeared to be the glass double doors that she had come through.

Her timid footsteps the only sound in an otherwise eerily silent hall, Kyoko had a sudden flash of recognition. Though she'd never had the opportunity to be inside one, the room resembled a large college lecture hall.

Another slow flight of stairs and Kyoko had reached the bottom. The flat white floor was empty, except–

Another soft footstep sounded in the room. Kyoko's heart leapt to her throat, and she tightened the grip on her pistol, raising it quickly to aim at the dark figure of a man in a black trench coat emerging from the shadows at the base of the white screen. The screen backlit him, casting the man in silhouette, and Kyoko was about to demand to know who he was when the screen caught the reflection off his wire-rimmed glasses.

Choking on her words, Kyoko froze.

Delta stepped forward again, fully into the light and no longer in shadow. He treated the LME agent to a warm, open smile.

"Hello, Kyoko. It's so nice to finally meet my daughter after so many years."

 **\- 0:11 until re-vote -**

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Notes** : Bait and swiiiiiitch! Haha, sorry all! Couldn't resist! Careful readers will note that Kimiko never confirmed that Ren was behind those doors. Don't kill me~! Haha, merry Christmas, enjoy your cliffhanger! xD

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG:**

 **Guineapigs1 –** Delta always has something evil planned! Haha, not that he would define it as "evil", but… More on that next month. ;) Thanks as always for the review! It's always great to see what you think of the plot twists and turns!

 **brennakai** – Hehe, your suspicions were correct! Delta and Kyoko meet face to face, and he's certainly up to no good. Hope you enjoyed the brief LoveMe girls badass battle!

 **H-Nala** – So they do!

 **ReneeFee** – Aww! It makes me so happy that you consider my story one of your faves! It's such an honor, considering that there are lots of great writers and stories on this site, particularly in the Skip Beat section. Thanks again, ReneeFee!

 **Erza Tsuruga** – Haha, crazy busy, I know how that feels. I admire you for tackling all of it though! Family, school, and work would be enough to drive anyone to their limits – solo, not to mention when mixed all together. Admittedly, you were right about last chapter in that it was pretty short. I couldn't find a decent way to break up the action, so this month's chapter ended up super long by comparison! Hope it makes up for last month! And hang in there! Hope you're able to spend a relaxing holiday season with loved ones!

 **Guest** – THANK YOU~! I think we are on the same FB group as well! I want to post more to tell those doubters off, but the group is still "Public" and "Open", so I'm worried that all of my coworkers and non-anime-loving friends are going to see all of my impassioned arguments on the group. And then I'm going to be outed as a big ol' nerd. TT_TT And I totally agree with you: Nakamura-sensei is a huge sadist but also, Ren and Kyoko's love story would not be half as amazing if it were easy. Lol, leave a name next time so I can call you out specifically. See you on FB!

 **kittiesama** – Thanks for taking the time to catch up and review both chapters! LOL I love how you're like, "I'm not even upset he got shot" xD #priorities If these two could have an easy love life, it would be boring and it wouldn't be Skip Beat. Hahaha And you also got the Kanae-Chiori dynamic down. I wish Sensei would show us more of those two interacting in the manga. They're pretty hilarious together.

 **Jellyfishhh** – Thanks again for the review! As for tension… Last month ain't got nothin' on this month's chapter! Muhahaha!

 **MWEH** – Thanks! It's always worth the wait for your reviews as well! Really happy you liked the LoveMe girls interacting. I've been watching a lot of Gintama lately and Chiori really reminds me of Otae – hides her dark, violent inner persona behind a cutesy, pleasant smile. As for the SB page, I think it is the same page! This month, Sho didn't make an appearance and Ren did, which is nice – but next chapter is setting itself up to be a big cluster F of love triangle. Ughhhh Hope no paparazzi are around! That's one aspect of the celebrity status of Skip Beat's main characters that I am not looking forward to impacting their relationships. I feel like once you bring the public into things, the misunderstandings are just going to grow and Kyoko is going to get meaninglessly bullied. Til next month, MWEH! Hope you have an amazing Christmas season with family and friends!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Don't forget to leave me a Christmas present as well! Drop a fave, alert, or review to let me know what you think of the story! Love you, my loyal readers!**

 **And if you haven't already, check out my Skip Beat one-shot series, All the World's a Stage!**


	44. Chapter 44

Hello loyal readers!

I'm again typing this as I'm running off to work!

I saw someone on the Facebook group I'm on shout out this story and it made me super happy!

If you're hurting for some more Skip Beat AU goodness, check out my other one-shot series, All The World's A Stage!

Until next month!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH44**

"Hello, Kyoko. It's so nice to finally meet my daughter after so many years."

The words rang, echoing in the empty room. And suddenly, just like that, the cavernous lecture hall seemed claustrophobically small. The world tilted on its axis, Kyoko's stomach churning.

Amidst the vertigo of utter shock and disbelief and denial, her mind resonated with the memory of Kimiko's words.

 _"Sorry, but it looks like your prince is in another castle!"_

 _"_ _You're wrong! There's no way you're going to save him that way!"_

The leaden weight in her gut solidified until she almost felt choked by the gravity.

Not only had she wrongly assumed it was Ren she was fighting Kimiko to see, but Delta... the man who had ruined Ren's life, kidnapped her, and was attempting to take over the Japanese government through blackmail - was her _father_.

A violent protest rose up from within her — it was all a ploy, a lie! But she could see it now — from the amber flecks in his brown eyes, to the echo of familiarity in his mannerisms, to the gentle slope of his nose and cheekbones, features she surely did not inherit from her sharp-angled mother — he was telling the truth.

Contrary to all expectations, the man before her broke into a sheepish grin.

"My apologies, what a rude way to introduce myself," he said as he shot her an apologetic smile and offered a formal bow. "My name is Misonoi Kazushi. It is very nice to finally meet you, Mogami Kyoko."

Her mouth felt full of cotton, and when she swallowed, her throat was sandpaper. The only thing her brain could manage to produce was a weak protest. "Tsu — T-san said your name was Shizumino Kaiso."

"This is also true..." Delta heaved a heavy sigh and strolled lazily over to a table in the corner of the room. Atop the large table sat a wooden diorama replica of both the exterior of the Diet and the interior. Light from the projector screen glinting off his glasses, the man calmly picked up the wooden figure of the Diet building and held it up to the light, scrutinizing it. "Thanks to the Japanese government, I have been many different people... Sometimes I have a hard time keeping track of it all... But of all the things I lied about to your mother, my name was not one of them."

Trying desperately not to give into the horrid sinking feeling tugging at her breastbone, Kyoko shook her head and tightened her grip on the pistol. Only one shot left. But Delta didn't need to know that.

Her voice hard, she snapped, "I don't care who you say you are. T-san — he suffered so much because of you – because of what you did to Rick."

She watched his knuckles whiten as his grip around the Diet tightened. He opened his mouth, a frown washing over his previous smile – but with venom in her voice, Kyoko interjected, "And even though T-san blames himself for what happened, we both know whose fault it _really_ was."

For a moment, his hand around the wooden diorama piece tightening, Kyoko was concerned that he was going to snap the thick wood right in half. Then his fingers relaxed, and he sighed, his tone mournful.

"Because of this cursed government, I also killed many people – some bad people, some good people, some people I don't remember..." He trailed off as he placed the model piece back in place and turned it so the wooden building stood straight and precisely where it belonged. The man – Kaiso, Kazushi, Delta – stared at the replica intently, his gaze lost momentarily in the past. "But Rick... Rick, I could never forget."

Uncomfortable seeing the man's clear vulnerability, Kyoko decided to turn the talk back to business. She grimly demanded with no little irony, "Have you kidnapped many people as well? Too many people to remember?"

Blinking himself out of his thoughts, Delta turned to her and laughed, his eyes twinkling. "I must say, you certainly inherited your mother's sharp wit. I've missed it."

Strolling past her over to the first row of seats, the dark-haired man sat and motioned the seat next to him, as if oblivious to the gun in her hands. "Would you like a seat? I would love some time to catch up with you."

A part of Kyoko surged in joy at the thought of a parental figure of some sort welcoming her into his life. But a sharp, bitter voice in her heart cried out in protest. Even more than common sense, the bitterness of abandonment won out in the end.

"Sorry. My adoptive parents taught me to never talk to strangers."

"Kyoko..." His voice was low and pleading.

"That's 'Mogami-san', if you'd please." She replied curtly, lining up the sights on her gun. "You're coming with me, Delta. We are going to stop this madness."

His brown eyes sad behind his glasses, Delta shook his head. "If you're worried about Tsuruga Ren, he's safe and sound. Recovering from surgery as we speak."

Shocked, Kyoko almost lowered the gun. "You saved him? Why would you do that?"

"How could I stand to see my poor daughter cry?" Suddenly, the man just looked so very... tired. Tired and desperate. "Please, Kyoko-chan... Just let me explain..."

Her heart was again launched into turmoil. On one hand, she didn't have time for this... On the other, his pleading tone and weary eyes...

Delta patted the seat beside himself and smiled sadly, "Wouldn't you like to know why your mother left you behind?"

She was stricken. Her whole life, she had speculated that she was the reason her father and mother had left — because she was inadequate or... broken. Now, here was an opportunity to hear another explanation. One that would, for once, possibly not condemn _her_ as the cause for her own painful upbringing.

Before she knew it, Kyoko had found her feet drawing closer. Swallowing the nervous lump in her throat and dampening the panicked voice of common sense in her mind, she holstered her weapon and slowly took the seat next to him.

"Thank you." Brightening a bit at her response, Delta admitted with a small laugh, "I haven't had much time to plan what I was going to say. I was actually assuming you were going to open fire on me." He paused, thinking, before saying slowly, "I suppose... I can start at the beginning..."

 **-x-**

 _ **2001\. Osaka, Japan**_

 _Kazushi arranged his notes and books on the table at the cafe. Tastefully frantic was the look he was going for. He glanced at his watch. 3:52pm. The bell over the door of the small, comfortable cafe chimed as a new patron walked in. He picked up his pencil and carded a hand through his long, dark hair as he snuck a glance at the young woman in the business suit walk gracefully up to the cashier._

 _'Right on time, Nigawa Makoto...'_

 _Like clockwork, the young lawyer showed up in the cafe to get her hot house-blend pour-over coffee with one cream and one sugar. Misonoi knew from years on the job that coffee orders said a lot about a person. Nigawa Makoto was professional but approachable without excess or indulgence_ _— but that was just the mask she wore for the benefit of others, judging by the extra two teaspoons of simple syrup she secretly added at the side table when the barista wasn't looking._

 _Kazushi knew where she worked - the Hashimoto Munitions Company - an independent contractor for the Japanese Self-Defense Force. She liked her office mates but wished she could have the window cubicle so she could look out at the downtown Osaka skyline from the 18th floor._

 _Kazushi knew that she worked a lot of overtime hours, sometimes staying until after the last train had departed the station and had to walk the twelve blocks back to her small studio apartment. She lived alone, no pets, no boyfriends - only casual acquaintances in her apartment building. She had a penchant for spicy food and oolong tea, mostly convenience store fare due to her busy lifestyle. She cooked when she could, but judging by the inedible mounds of char he_ _'d found on occasion in her trash, apparently the culinary arts were not her specialty._

 _Kazushi also knew that every workday, at 3:30pm, she would indulge in a small luxury - a short excursion downstairs to the building_ _'s comfortable coffee shop. And he knew that she always enjoyed sitting in the small corner table by the large glass window - the very seat he was currently occupying._

 _As the young woman turned from the side table_ _— still stirring two teaspoons of simple syrup into her coffee — he saw in his peripherals as she paused. Trying to appear preoccupied and non-threatening, Kazushi ran another distressed hand through his long brown hair, making the front stick up comically in the air. He listened as she settled into the booth at the table next to him, the only other seat open next to the window._

 _Pretending to look for an errant scrap of notes, he subtly closed the large bar exam study guide in such a way that the name on the spine was clearly visible to her. He had no way of checking if she had seen, but he increased his chances by fidgeting with his pencil next to the book_ _'s spine._

 _He sat in silence, pretending to read the notes in front of him studiously... biding his time until_ _— 4:12 p.m. — Saena released a small sigh as she scooted out of her booth next to him, turning sideways to squeeze past his table, her back to him._

 _'_ _Perfect.'_

 _Just as she was about to walk by the cafe table, he subtly nudged a piece of paper until it fluttered off the edge and to the tiled floor. He quickly looked down and pretended to just be stretching his hand as she glanced back quickly to the piece of paper she had apparently knocked to the ground on accident._

 _Kazushi pretended not to notice as his mark stooped to pick the paper up, his heart racing at the thrill of the sting. And, just as he had calculated, there was a small, gentle tap to his shoulder._

 _Briefly reminding himself of the character he wanted to portray - flustered and clumsy, but endearing - the spy looked up, pretending to be startled. But for the first time in a long time, something went terribly, horribly wrong with Misonoi Kazushi_ _'s perfect calculations._

 _As he turned his face upward, prepared to launch into the act, Kazushi_ _'s eyes met hers and he stopped. The care emanating from her expressive brown eyes was palpable, and though a deep frown marred her brow, he could instantly tell it was a byproduct of concern and not malice._

 _Her petite mouth was moving, but he somehow wasn_ _'t registering the words. Her elegant brow furrowed deeper, and he snapped back to reality._

 _"_ _Are you ok?" The young lawyer was saying, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."_

 _"_ _Yes, no, I mean, no you didn't startle me. Just surprised me." The words popped out of his mouth, and he internally cursed himself. He was a professional, wasn't he?_

 _"_ _Well," Makoto shifted awkwardly, hand outstretched with the paper. "I just wanted to apologize. I think I knocked this to the floor when I walked by."_

 _Kazushi glanced down at the paper, or rather at the falsely low score on his_ _"practice test". Trying desperately to meld back into his character, he laughed sheepishly and took the proffered paper with a small, seated bow. "Oh! This! It's just a practice test. Thank you though..."_

 _Leaving a silence was a gamble. If he hadn_ _'t drummed up enough of her interest, she could very well do what any polite Japanese citizen would - excuse herself from the conversation and return to work. But she hesitated. Kazushi held back his grin._

 _"_ _Are you studying for the bar exam?" She finally blurted out, slender fingers playing with the plastic rim of her coffee cup lid._

 _More back to himself, the spy proudly nodded his head then pretended to wilt._ _"Well... This may be the last time..." He looked up quickly, making sure the corners of his smile were too tight. "A man can only stand so many rejections in a row, you know?"_

 _"_ _Well, I can see why you failed, with a score like that—" Instantly mortified, Makoto's hands flew up to cover her mouth. The frown immediately replaced her look of horrified shock. Kazushi could tell that she was going to bolt._

 _But he genuinely laughed, honestly surprised at her candor. Shoulders heaving forward in apparent relief, Makoto_ _'s frown lessened and she quickly apologized with a small bow. "I am so terribly sorry. My coworkers all say I need to learn how to hold my tongue."_

 _"_ _Please don't!" He grinned boyishly up at her. "Your honesty is refreshing." And he meant it._

 _Clearly flustered and trying to hide her obvious blush, Makoto coughed into her hand._ _"Well... As restitution for my insult, if you would like, I could... try to give you some study pointers. I took the bar myself two years ago."_

 _Kazushi brightened. All going according to plan. But in his gut, something that felt like doubt began to take root. He shook it off. No time for that now._

 _She bowed politely._ _"My name is Nigawa Makoto."_

 _He had already known that, but somehow it felt different hearing her say it._

 _"_ _My name is Mi— Misonoi Kazushi." He realized his mistake as soon as the first syllable left his lips. He was supposed to be Sakamoto Shin. He had gotten caught up in the flow of things, and — Why did this woman make him feel like a complete novice?_

 _But as she repeated his name – his real name – Kazushi felt in a deep part of his being that he enjoyed the way she said it._

 **-x-**

 **Present Day**

"Councillor Mogami..." Ren prompted gently.

The older woman blinked rapidly, her eyes coming back into focus as if cast back into reality from the depths of her story. The frown on her brow deepened as she glanced away. "My apologies... I seem to have lost my train of thought."

As Ren sat back in the cement cell, he experimentally prodded the wound on his side. The pain wasn't completely resolved but was tolerable now after injecting the medicine that Saena had brought. While the two had been waiting for the medicine to fully take effect before attempting their escape, Ren had started asking questions about her apparently reluctant ties with Delta. If her rebellion indicated anything to Ren, it was that Kyoko's mother was just another pawn in the mastermind's nefarious schemes.

"That's right..." The dark-haired politician began again slowly, the weight of regret clear in her voice, "After that day, that man began burrowing himself deeper and deeper into my life. Study sessions turned into coffee dates which turned into home cooked meals, which..."

She trailed off. Ren offered mildly, "You eventually became lovers."

Saena's lips thinned, and the frown on her brow grew deeper still. She gave a curt, "Yes. I grew comfortable... and careless."

 **-x-**

 _His superior_ _'s rebuke echoed in his ears._

 _'_ _Where is the document? Our window of time is shrinking. The boats — which had been planned for month in advance — are still in Japanese waters. But they've been there for almost a week now and are going to have to leave soon before they gain too much attention from the military. What the hell are you doing?'_

 _The implication was clear._

 _Get results NOW_ _— or else._

 _'_ _Well. That is the problem, isn't it?' Kazushi mused to himself. Because he was pretty sure he had fallen madly in love with the very woman he was supposed to be manipulating. How ironic that it had been his job to woo her with his charms, and the exact opposite had happened._

 _When exactly had he fallen in love with the young lawyer? Kazushi couldn't pinpoint an exact instance when he_ knew _. It was more a slow creeping feeling, like a sunrise dawning over the horizon…_

 _He loved the way she became so easily flustered at his teasing. He loved the way her smile lit up when_ _'s he saw him, how it warmed his heart to a depth he had previously thought impossible. He loved the way she devoted herself to her work, endlessly passionate for her job and for helping her coworkers._

 _However, it was that very job that was going to tear them apart._

 _Lost in thought, Kazushi absent-mindedly thumbed the object in his pocket like a talisman. Even though he had bought it as a prop in this game, as another tool with which to con Makoto, with each passing day, the prop became more real than the charade that had produced it._

 _His breath puffing clouds of mist in the frigid December air, the reluctant spy climbed the two flights of stairs to her apartment. He found himself taking the stairs two at a time, ever eager to see her, despite the turmoil and dread weighing in his heart._

 _There was just something about her smile, her presence that cut through the fog of doubt and duplicity. Her smile made madness seem like sanity. And made all that he had thought sane like madness._

 _And when Makoto greeted him at the door, her smile did not disappoint. She lit up as she saw the grocery bags in his hand._

 _"_ _Misonoi-san! You're early! Oh, you're going to cook tonight again? You really ought to be studying, you know!"_

 _During dinner - spicy pasta with clams - smiling and laughing with her over the most mundane things – and yes, he really could believe that the feisty neighborhood stray had gotten Mirai-san_ _'s cat pregnant_ again _– he was able to almost pretend that this was all there was in his life._

 _'_ _It could be,' whispered a hopeful voice in his mind as he and Makoto washed dishes together. 'Run away, hide, be happy together forever.'_

 _However, as Kazushi settled down into his_ _'study notes' at the kotatsu, he knew that it wasn't that simple. For one, it would be nearly impossible to escape the reaches of the PSIA. Not entirely impossible, but very nearly._

 _For another thing, he had a mission to do. A mission to help his country – that was all he had ever known as a spy. To throw it all away for a woman was fundamentally insane._

 _But the biggest reason weighing in his heart, if he were to be honest with himself, was the stomach-churning, soul-crushing fear that Makoto would reject him were she to ever learn the truth. After all, why shouldn_ _'t she be appalled that everything they had built their relationship on was a lie?_

 _Maybe it was fated that they would never be together. As much as fate had seemed to initially draw them together, it was also pushing them infinitely apart._

 _"—_ _sonoi-san?"_

 _Her voice broke through his heavy thoughts. Kazushi glanced up sharply. Amused smile on her lips, Makoto was leaned over him, waving a hand in his face. Her long, dark ponytail fell gracefully over one shoulder as she bent down._

 _She chuckled. "You must really be focused on your studies tonight. I called your name three times."_

 _Shaking off his previous thoughts and trying not to feel slimy again taking on the mantle of deception, Kazushi grinned back apologetically._ _"Sorry! I hadn't heard you at all. What were you asking me?"_

 _"_ _It probably works out better this way, that you're so focused," his girlfriend said with a relieved laugh. "After all, your exam is in less than a month, right? I just wanted to let you know that I can't help you too much tonight. I have some work I had to take home."_

 _Kazushi_ _'s heart sank. It wasn't a coincidence that Director Goro had called him today. It was time._

 _Managing some sound of understanding, he pretended to return to his studies but watched her out of the corner of his eye as she took a large hard-shelled case out of her workbag. Innocent to the gut-wrenching turmoil of her companion, Makoto flipped open the clasps on the case to reveal a soft foam bed that contained three floppy disks._

 _Heart heavy, the spy stood slowly and made his way to the kitchen. His hands shook as he prepared the drink and emerged from the kitchen with a cup of steaming oolong tea with two spoonfuls of sugar – just the way she liked it._

 _Makoto turned as she heard him approach from behind, and her eyes lit up at the sight of the drink. By sheer reflex, he managed to return her smile as he handed over the teacup, even though his mouth felt like it was full of sand – dry and disgusting._

 _"_ _You really shouldn't be peeking at my work, you know," Makoto joked, her dark brown eyes shining in humor as she nursed the warmth from the ceramic cup. Kazushi could only watch helplessly, a smile plastered on his face, as the steam from the tea curled up like evil tentacles._

 _"_ _But thank you for the tea," she was saying, a twinkle in her eye. "It's perfect."_

 _Heart sick, Kazushi watched her turn back to her computer screen. But at the last moment, she turned, tucked a strand of errant hair behind her ear, and leaned forward to plant a gentle kiss on his cheek._

 _His heart broke. He couldn_ _'t do this anymore._

 _As she blew the steam off the top of the cup and leaned down to take a sip, Misonoi Kazushi saw his life at a crossroads_ _— one road with her, and one without. The latter option was nauseating and horrifying and bleak._

 _"_ _Wait!" He leapt forward and slapped a hand over the mouth of the teacup. Makoto looked up at him in shock as he snatched the cup away, tea sloshing out._

 _"_ _Misonoi-san..."_

 _"_ _The... the tea bag was expired," he stammered out the obvious lie. Then covered by laughing. What he meant as a sheepish laugh came out stilted and forced. "I... I didn't realize until now. I'll make you some new tea."_

 _Without waiting for her reaction, he strode to the kitchen, purpose in his steps. Pouring the drugged tea down the sink, he glanced at his coat on the rack by the door. The talisman seemed to draw his gaze from the pocket._

 _He was going to_ _do it. Some how, some way, he was going to tell Makoto the truth and get her out of there. Even if the whole world came against him, he was never going to throw her away. To protect her, to keep her – he was willing to do anything, even change fate if he had to._

 **-x-**

* * *

 **Sorry again for no update in December! Don't forget to leave an encouraging word in the reviews if you can. Love you all!**

 **MAILBAG**

 **MWEH** – LOL, I feel like you know me so well. "I knew [the reunion] wouldn't come" haha Have my twists become predictable in that I love to draw out the drama too much? Just kidding, I'm glad you enjoyed the fight scene! As for the manga, this last chapter would have been unbearably cringe-worthy if it wasn't for that last page with everyone's reactions to the Okami-san bringing the ring out. Hopefully Ren and Kyoko get to talk it out before they go to work! Hopefully Nakamura-sensei will put us all out of our misery and not just skip forward to some insignificant scene next chapter and will actually show us the drama about to unfold! Hopefully Skip Beat will not fall into the trope of piling on misunderstandings about love rivals just to create dramatic tension! Alas, I fear all of my hopes will be ground into dust in a week or so when the new chapter comes out… *cries* Thanks again for leaving a thoughtful review as always even though I'm sure you were busy with holiday stuff! Thanks again MWEH!

 **A Musing Brunette** – Thanks for going through from the beginning! I've been re-reading too just to make sure I'm tying up all the loose ends as I plan the next few chapters. My writing in the beginning is a lot different than now, and I'm glad that I've been able to shake off a lot of the writer's rust (prior to writing this fic, I hadn't written anything in over 4 years!)

 **Guest** (12/15/18) – Thanks for leaving such a thoughtful and encouraging review! I'm glad some of my readers were able to pick up on the idea that defeating Kimiko is indeed like catharsis for Kyoko. Hope to keep you with fresh questions and keep you guessing! ;) Leave a name next time so I know who to shout out in the next Mailbag!

 **kittiesama** – Haha, yeah Kyoko's interactions with Kanae and Chiori are oftentimes the funniest. Especially when they get in trouble with the President for letting their dark thoughts percolate together. Thanks again for leaving a review kittiesama! Hope these next few chapters are to your liking!

 **Jellyfishhh** – Surprise! It wasn't Ren! Lol, I'm glad I got at least someone with that twist! Thanks for stopping by and reviewing Jellyfishhh!

 **Guest** (12/1/18) – LOL, evil Santa here to give you plot twists and coal for Christmas! Leave a name next time so I know who's reviewing! 3

 **brennakai** – I'm really happy you liked the kick-butt LoveMe girls! Unfortunately, Delta's hideout isn't below the Diet! That'd be absolutely diabolical if that were the case, but how the heck would he hide that? Where it is, though, is a non-essential mystery. But it is definitely a weird building. It has giant conference rooms, jail cells, janitor's closets, warehouses, and lecture halls built in. lol

 **Guineapigs1** – Haha, about that countdown… I feel regretful that I didn't leave more time for Delta and Kyoko to talk. It says that they only have 11 minutes to talk, but TBH, their conversation would take like half an hour minimum – and what kind of proper main character stands around and lets the bad guy monologue for 10 whole minutes as the clock ticks down? Argh… I wish I had calculated the time better! It kind of takes away the dramatic tension to know that Kyoko is kind of having a long conversation with Delta as the clock winds down… We'll just pretend that the whole world is frozen in time in the way animes tend to do when a character has flashbacks to fill in the backstory. LOL.


	45. Chapter 45

Hello loyal readers,

Today we have a love-triangle if you squint, more flashbacks, and the conclusion to our Saena-Misonoi arc. Hope you enjoy!

Please remember to leave a review, an alert, or a fave. It really helps to keep me motivated! They always say that the end of the story is the hardest to write because the momentum has tapered off, and I'd have to agree!

Thanks readers! Love you all!

 **-x-**

* * *

 **CH45**

 _ **2001\. Osaka, Japan**_

 _Makoto had assumed that after the thorough tongue-lashing Yamaguchi-senpai had given him, he would've dropped the issue. Now, she was regretting holding the elevator door open for him._

 _As the silence grew thick between them, she could almost feel Toudou's probing stare from across the elevator. It was just her luck that their particular elevator hadn't seemed to be requested by any of the other 17 floors on the way to the ground level. Perhaps it was because fewer people were going home due to the late time of evening._

"Toudou-kun, please refrain from interrogating your coworkers like some cheesy television detective!" _Yamaguchi-senpai had snapped while hauling the dark-haired man away by the ear back to his desk._

 _Though her sharp-tongued senior was at best a source of social anxiety and at worst a cause for contemplating a career change, Makoto sincerely wished that Yamaguchi-senpai were there beside her now. Almost anything to ward off the inevitable continuation of the previous conversation–_

 _"So, how did you meet him?"_

 _Simultaneously, there seemed to be a rock that plummeted out the bottom of her gut and a string that tightened around her throat._

 _'Dammit!' She turned to her fellow lawyer slowly, trying to control the frown on her face that had always seemed like a dead giveaway to her frighteningly perceptive colleague. Conjuring her best neutral expression, Makoto began, "I'm not quite sure what you are referring to, Toudou-san. If you could be a little more specific–"_

 _"Your boyfriend," the bespectacled man intoned, tilting his head to the side, his countenance blank. Forget trying to read his expression, Makoto had her hands full trying to hide her incriminating blush._

 _Leave it to Toudou_ _Susumu_ _to deduct that she had a boyfriend based on a change in her lip-gloss shade!_

 _Unable to refute the accusation any longer – her face aflame – Makoto mumbled out, "At the coffee shop downstairs…"_

 _There was a moment of silence as she tried to look everywhere in the elevator but at her coworker._

 _Finally, Toudou stated with a coldness that shocked Makoto, "A stranger then? I wouldn't have expected that from you, Nigawa-san."_

 _Instantly, the woman felt her flush return – but in anger this time. She instantly whipped her head to look at him, almost in disbelief that he had said something so… so…!_

 _Infuriated, her mind struggled through a fog of indignation as all she could do was clutch her bag tighter to her chest, causing the hard-sided floppy disc case to crush against her ribs through the leather of her bag. For some reason, all her professional eloquence and mental acumen had instantly vaporized into a puddle of brain mush._

 _Finally, her mouth managed to mutter, "He's not a stranger."_

 _She turned to look back at the floor, seething. From a small, cognizant island of her mind, she knew that the scowl on her brow was deeper than it had been in quite a while._

 _Toudou's remark had felt particularly mean-spirited because it was so… unexpected. Though extremely logical and as sharp as a knife at work, Susumu had a gentle undercurrent to him that few people bothered to see. He had brought her dinner on more than one occasion when she'd stayed late at the office working._

 _She was even sure that during a busy season at the company a year ago, he'd taken several binders worth of work off her desk and done them himself. She hadn't known who'd taken pity on her and had assumed it was Yamaguchi-senpai until she'd found the binders on his desk only a few months ago._

 _She had considered Toudou at least an ally in the workplace, if not a close acquaintance – but now…_

 _The dark-haired woman sensed some shuffling in his corner of the elevator. She glanced at him irritably._

 _Toudou was fidgeting with his glasses. She knew he only did that when he was extremely uncomfortable. A nervous tic she wasn't sure he was even aware of._

 _Then the man sighed. He continued to examine the floor of the elevator, a frown on his face. Toudou finally spoke, his voice full of genuine regret, "I apologize, Nigawa-san. That was rude of me. I just…"_

 _The elevator_ dinged _as it reached the bottom floor._

 _Swallowing hard and ready to be rid of the unbearable atmosphere in the elevator, Makoto quickly made to exit through the opening double doors. Interrupting her colleague and not meaning a single word, she hastily bit out, "Good-bye Toudou-san. Have a good evening."_

 _She was three steps out of the elevator when she felt a hand on her shoulder._

" _Nigawa-san–" Toudou quickly dropped his hand from her shoulder as she turned. She faced him more out of social obligation than anything else, but she was surprised as her normally stoic coworker frowned, clearly in turmoil. He trailed off, "I…"_

 _Anger forgotten, Makoto could only look back at him, baffled. The calm and collected, logical-to-a-fault Toudou was acting so out of character. He stood in silence, looking at his hand, eyes narrowed as if the appendage had betrayed him. As if he'd let something precious slip through his fingers and drop to the ground._

 _They stood off to the side as several businessmen and women in a blur of black trench coats trickled past them on their way home._

 _He was silent for so long, Makoto couldn't help but prompt, "Toudou-san…?"_

 _After a bit, Toudou just sighed. He shot her a gentle smile as he brushed past her. "Never mind, Nigawa-san. I apologize again for my rudeness. See you tomorrow."_

 _And then he was gone._

 _Makoto frowned, clutching her bag as she watched her coworker leave, swept up in the conveyor belt of monochrome Japanese businessmen walking down the sidewalk. Feeling confused, she herself exited the building's glass doors and turned the other way to walk home._

 _As she trudged through the January cold, her breath turned into clouds of fog before her face. It was one of those walks, one of those quiet winter days, where thinking was unavoidable, the thoughts too loud to silence._

 _The foremost thought on her mind: Why had she gotten so angry at Toudou?_

 _If she were being honest with herself, his comment could have been relatively benign. Given her previous interactions with him, there was a possibility he hadn't meant it as an insult. Her anger had been out of proportion._

 _If she were being honest with herself…she was projecting. Deep down, she was afraid._

 _She had never dated. Ever. In high school, college, and law school – the boys were always too put off by her blunt speech and inability to express her emotions. Misonoi Kazushi was her first boyfriend, and he was everything Makoto could have hoped for in a boyfriend. Gentle, supportive, intelligent, witty, understanding – but weren't they moving awfully fast?_

 _Not that she knew what was appropriate, and what wasn't – but after just two months of seeing him, he was regularly spending the night… among other things..._

 _Nigawa Makoto had never lived daringly. Her whole life had been charted out for her, and she had followed it unthinkingly, like a train along its tracks. This first rebellion – a whirlwind romance – was thrilling… but also equally terrifying._

 _And honestly, sometimes she wondered about him. If she were being logical, like Toudou said, they were essentially strangers. Despite their fast affinity, had she even gotten to know Kazushi at all?_

 _Actually, if she were to look past the fog of emotions and endorphins, she could pick up strange beats in their conversations._

 _Talk of his parents, his background, places he'd lived, places he'd traveled – the conversations would all cut off abruptly. He would realize he had forgotten the miso soup on the stove or that the waiter hadn't brought her water or that he had to sleep early to make it to his part-time job's early shift the next morning._

 _In truth… how much did she really know about Misonoi Kazushi?_

 _And after his bizarre actions yesterday night…_

 _An uneasy curl of suspicion wormed its way through Makoto's stomach. The sickening sense of dread was made infinitely worse by her discovery yesterday. The evidence of her finding lay in her apartment's dumpster – tossed out with the bathroom garbage in a fit of nervous fright._

 _The dread, the suspicion, and the anger at herself for feeling such mistrust toward someone who had only shown her kindness and love – had all boiled over into anger at Toudou for even tangentially voicing aloud the things that she feared the most._

 _As she took the stairs up to her apartment, slowly, unsure, and unlocked the door, Makoto saw Kazushi's coat on the rack. She glanced down. His shoes were gone though._

 _He had left a note on the side table by the door: "Mako-chan – Ran to the convenience store for some ingredients I forgot. Be back soon! I have a surprise for you tonight! I hope you'll like it!"_

 _Almost hesitantly, Makoto looked up at the dark coat hanging innocently on its hook. She swallowed nervously._

 _How much did she really know about Misonoi Kazushi?_

 _Well, she knew where she'd start looking._

 **—x—**

 **Present Day**

Saena paused, and Ren blinked, so engrossed in the story that he felt physically jerked back to reality. Eyes to the floor, she suddenly asked, "Do you know about the Okinoshima Incident?"

"How could I not?" Slightly confused at the sudden shift in narrative, Ren neatly listed off the facts he knew. "Largest international military incident for Japan since World War II. Suspected North Korean ships off the coast of Okinoshima Island were boarded by the Japanese Self Defense Force in Japanese waters. It was supposed to be an intimidation tactic, to send them packing back to North Korea. But, one of the North Koreans fired at the Japanese soldiers. The Japanese soldiers, who were supposed to be using non-lethal baton rounds, were actually using illegal hollow-point bullets. It was a massacre. The bullets were traced back to the Hashimoto Munitions Company in Osaka…" Ren froze. He looked sharply at Saena. "No… He didn't..."

Saena just looked at her hands, empty. Her voice was strained. "I had brought the documents for the munitions shipment home to authorize them. I was supposed to ensure the ammunition didn't violate any international treaties. I was given the authority to finalize and change the order if need-be…"

"You were the scapegoat... Hashimoto Munitions' lawyer – you were the one the media – the courts –" Aghast, Ren finished the leap in logic. "He framed you for treason and murder."

"That night… I found a ring in his pocket." Her voice sounded weary and aged, as if she'd spent a lifetime and a half going over it in her mind. A looping treadmill of regret from which there was no escape. "I ignored my suspicions, because I wanted to believe in him. I wanted to trust him."

Moisture glistening in the corners of her lids, Saena closed her eyes, the frown etched deeply on her brow.

"I was a fool."

 **—x—**

 _It would be tonight, Kazushi decided, blowing warm air into his hands against the frigid cold and pulling the muffler farther up his face. He had contacted Agent_ _Bakemono_ _earlier that day – not with any details, just to request he be at the ready. '_ _Baka-mono'_ _as Kazushi playfully called him, was outrageous at times, but his old mentor and occasional partner was a fearsomely competent agent and an infinitely loyal friend._

 _If anyone could help get him and Saena out of Japan, it would be Bakemono._

 _Rubbing his hands up and down his upper arms as he sprinted up the last few steps to the second floor of the apartment building, Kazushi fumbled with the keys, wishing he'd brought his jacket after all. He thought that his hat and muffler would've been enough, but he'd misjudged the sudden January cold snap._

 _Frigid fingers finally managing to settle the right key in the lock, the agent froze._

 _His gut-sense, the one that the PSIA had honed to a dagger's edge over the years, sent a tingle from the nape of his neck down his spine. It was the feeling of being watched._

 _Kazushi spun around, eyes expertly scanning the surroundings – flitting above rooftops, over the windows of nearby apartments, through trees, across sidewalks, and into the dark crannies of alleyways._

 _No light glinted off sniper scopes on the roofs, no glimmer of binoculars shone in the dark windows of unoccupied apartments, no cameras flashed in the alleys, and only the whisper of chilling wind ran through the treetops. There was a twitch of movement at the base of one of the bushes across the street, a rustle of leaves – Kazushi tensed, hand reaching for the weapon concealed in the waistband of his pants._

 _A black cat slunk out of the brush, blinked sleepily up at the agent, before turning and padding down the sidewalk in search of warmer quarters._

 _Releasing a chuckling sigh, Kazushi shivered off the foreboding feeling and turned back to the door._

 _His sense was off, the agent argued to himself as he turned the key in the lock. Living for so long with Makoto was dulling his edge. But of all nights, Kazushi thought with growing determination as he opened the door, he needed to be in top form._

 _Tonight – if Makoto agreed – they were going to escape._

 _The door swung open, and he lugged the grocery bag inside with a cheery, "I'm home!"_

 _"Oh! Ah, Misonoi-san! Welcome back," came the muffled reply from the bathroom._

 _"Sorry to have left for so long," Kazushi called as he settled the groceries on the kitchen counter and came back out to the hallway. His coat was still on the rack, right where he'd left it. "I couldn't find the tempura flour in the grocery store. I think they had moved it to another aisle."_

 _The agent fished around in the right pocket, feeling his heart skip a beat when he couldn't find the ring box, then sighed in relief as he found it on the left._

 _"Oh? That's unusual," Makoto called from the bathroom door. "I'm almost done washing up. I'll be out soon."_

 _"Don't worry!" Kazushi replied back, flipping open the box and eyeing the ring before closing it with a snap. "We have all the time in the world."_

 _As he cooked, his spatula flying over the frying pan, he tried to suppress the small, murmuring voice of fear in the back of his mind. The voice was doing everything it could to claw its way to the forefront._

 _She's going to hate me. I've put her life in danger._

'Stop it.'

 _After she hears the truth, she won't want anything to do with me ever again._

'I'm saving her. She'll come with me.'

 _I manipulated her. All I am is a liar. A liar and a killer._

'I can change. It's never too late to change.'

 _I can't change._

'For her, I can.'

" _I think you burned the onions, Misonoi-san."_

 _At the sudden auditory intrusion into his pool of thick, swirling thoughts, Kazushi jumped, banging his head on the underside of the stove's exhaust vent._

 _"AH! M-Mako-chan!" The normally smooth agent stammered. He turned, rubbing the bump forming on the top of his head. "I didn't hear you come out…"_

 _Kazushi trailed off, his words forgotten in a daze. All he could do was stare at her. It wasn't anything particularly special – just Nigawa Makoto toweling off her damp, dark hair with a threadbare towel, dressed in the comfortable black sweatpants and baggy striped sweater that she liked so much. But as she turned to him, the laughter twinkling in her eyes – he knew._

 _Today, for the first time in a long time, he felt grounded._

 _He was Misonoi Kazushi. And he was going to tell the truth. He was going to escape, and for her, he was going to change._

" _Is Misonoi-san ok?" Makoto was peering up at him, an awkward smile masking the concern on her face. "I don't think I've ever seen you burn food before–"_

 _"Mako-chan. Makoto." Kazushi reached for her hand, ignoring the smoldering mess he'd left on the stove. He licked his lips, his heart thudding in his chest. He was going to make everything right and get her out of this mess. "I have something I need to tell you."_

 _"…O-Ok…" She gazed up at him, her brown eyes raw and searching, excited and vulnerable._

 _Kazushi breathed in and opened his mouth, secrets on his tongue._

 _There was a buzzing in his pocket. Kazushi blinked._

 _His cell phone. His work cell phone._

 _He instantly felt cold. Hand numb, he let go of Makoto's fingers and pulled the phone out of his pocket._

 _An undisclosed number flashed on the readout screen._

 _Kazushi could only hold it in his hand and watch it ring, his heart sinking further and further._

 _"I should probably take this," he heard his voice saying as he dropped her other hand. "It might be… work…"_

 _He hardly heard her response as he mechanically walked out of the kitchen and out the front door, down the steps of her apartment building to the first floor and around the corner. Every step was a dread._

 _Slowly, he flipped the phone open and brought it up to his ear._

" _You are about to fail your assignment, Agent_ _Izanagi_ _. I would rather you not."_

 _Misonoi's breath escaped him. It felt like a rubber band was being stretched across his chest, every breath a heaving labor. Luckily, years of training and experience kept his voice steady and his response vague. "My apologies, Director Goro, but I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about–"_

" _Do you think I'm a fool?" – came the barked response from his PSIA superior. "I know an agent going rogue when I hear one."_

 _Kazushi couldn't get the words out. A million excuses, a million lies lay just out of reach of his panicking mind._

 _The PSIA had bugged Makoto's apartment. How else could Goro have known? The timing was too perfect._

" _I never thought it would've been you," Goro was continuing, his voice low and mockingly mournful. "You were our most promising talent. The PSIA's future. Our country's future! And you'd throw all that away for some woman–"_

 _At the director's disgusted tone, Kazushi felt his fear melt away into anger. He growled into the phone. "She's not just 'some woman'! You're asking me to ruin her life—!"_

" _Have you forgotten why you're there?" Goro demanded. Kazushi could imagine the middle-aged man's face flushed with anger. "For your country's sake—!"_

" _Damn this country!" Kazushi retorted sharply, then glanced up at Makoto's closed window before lowering his voice to a furious whisper. "I don't think that this mission is necessary to —"_

"'Think _?'" The director cut in, his voice as cold as steel. "Agent Izanagi, you are just a tool. A tool doesn't need to_ think _. It just needs to_ _do its job_ _."_

 _The statement was like a slap in the face. Indignation battled with this terrible sinking fear that Goro was right. Kazushi had sworn an oath – had tortured and killed and orchestrated the ruination of so many lives – for this country. The agent couldn't think of anything to say._

 _The voice on the other end of the phone continued, turning an edge of pleading. "Don't be a fool. You won't be able to get away if you betray us."_

" _You've made sure I'm very good at hiding," Kazushi managed, his lips dry._

" _I didn't want to have to do this, Izanagi…" The gruff voice said curtly, "If you try to reveal your identity and this assignment to her, I have orders to have you both shot and disposed of."_

 _The gut-wrenching prickling feeling was back, creeping up the nape of his neck. They probably had a PSIA assassin watching him as they spoke._

" _If you walk out of that apartment without altering the data," Goro continued, "In order to recoup our losses, I have been ordered to arrange Nigawa-san to have an accident so we can access the files and cover our tracks."_

 _"No…"_

 _There was no escape. Not anymore. The ring, the plan, the promise of happiness— all a pipe dream headed straight to nowhere. Kazushi felt empty, disconnected from the horrifying reality that was unavoidably unfolding before him._

 _Goro continued, growing more reasonable._

" _But if you comply and edit the data properly, I promise that though she will take the fall for this, in the end, I'll guarantee that she has a way out."_

 _A weak hope fluttered in his breast. Kazushi demanded, "How."_

" _Witness protection."_

 _The hope sunk again, despair cresting over him. He whispered, broken, "I'll never be able to see her again."_

" _Agent," the voice sighed. "That's probably for the best."_

 _Kazushi stayed silent, the anguish growing in his stomach, nearly suffocating, overpowering. A maelstrom of helpless rage and defeat. He would never be able to explain to her... She would wake up thinking that he had betrayed her. Used her. Deserted her._

 _But what other choice did he have?_

 **-x-**

 _For the second time that night, Makoto slipped the simple black ring box back into Kazushi's jacket pocket. Unable to help herself in her barely suppressed excitement, she felt like a child coming out of a candy store, checking on her purchases, just to make sure her good fortune was more than a figment of her imagination._

 _This time, she had been brazen enough to try it on, a heavy flush creeping over her cheeks. The small diamond ring had fit perfectly on her finger. Briefly, she wondered when he'd had the chance to get her ring size, then a smile glimmered on her lips as she patted the lump in the pocket with near reverence._

 _Kazushi had always been very sharp. He had picked up so quickly on her quirks and her humor, her likes and dislikes. Sometimes, she felt like he knew her like the back of his hand._

 _He would make a good husband, she thought to herself, a giddy smile crossing her face as her heart raced. Then her smile faded._

 _If he was going to propose tonight, then… then she ought to tell him the news on her end. How would he react?_

 _Worry clouding her awareness, Makoto started, nearly jumping in the air when she heard the key scraping into the lock as her boyfriend returned. Afraid of ruining Kazushi's surprise, she rushed back to her computer, clumsily pretending to work._

 _The door opened, and a cold gust of air blew in, before the front door closed slowly, silently. Makoto turned, hiding her smile, half expecting herself to have been caught._

 _"Mi-Misonoi-san! I-I was just–" Then she stopped short._

 _His face was pale, gaunt. His eyes hid behind the harsh reflection off his glasses, fogged in the sudden warmth of the apartment. His shoulders hung, limp and defeated._

 _"Misonoi-san…?" Makoto stood and walked forward, hesitantly. She had this strange sense as if any sudden sound or movement would cause him to bolt out of the apartment. "Is everything ok at work? Did something happen?"_

 _He was only silent, still. Concern growing a leaden weight in her stomach, Makoto reached for his hands. They were ice cold._

 _"Your hands are freezing," she noted, trying to rub some warmth into them. She tilted her head to try and catch his eye. Behind his glasses, he only stared at the floor, his sight blank and unresponsive. The frown on her brow furrowed into place. "Do you want any hot soup to drink? I could make you–"_

 _Kazushi blinked, and like a switch being flipped, he seemed to come to awareness. He looked down, taking his glasses off his nose and cleaning them on his shirt. Smiling sadly, he said almost to himself, "How about I just make some tea?"_

 _With a small squeeze, he dropped her hands and went into the kitchen._

 _Now her hands felt cold._

 _Trying to discard the uneasy feeling building in the pit of her stomach, Makoto settled herself by the kotatsu, and when Kazushi emerged from the kitchen carrying a small tray with two teacups, she tried to call out to him in a playful voice, "So what did you need to tell me?"_

 _Her smile felt fake on her face._

 _Still avoiding her eyes, Kazushi set a teacup down on the kotatsu in front of her. "I… I got called into work tonight. It was unexpected, so I'll probably have to leave soon."_

 _Makoto looked down at the tea. The steam curled invitingly._

 _Something felt terribly, horribly wrong. Like a cog in the universe had jittered and clogged the clockwork. A feeling like the sense that she had missed something or forgotten something important tickled at the back of her mind._

 _"What was the surprise you wrote about in your note?" She tried to make her voice sound casual. For some reason, she was afraid to look up at him._

 _"I'm sorry, Mako-chan…" He replied haltingly. "It will have to wait until later."_

 _Her fingers reached for the cup, then hesitated. But she steeled herself. What was this unwarranted paranoia? She had decided to trust him after all. Maybe she was just sad that the surprise – maybe a proposal, if she was so arrogant to assume – was being postponed._

 _Picking up the cup, the ceramic warmed her fingers. She puckered her lips to blow at the surface. Makoto brought the teacup up to drink._

 _Then there was a hand on her cheek, causing her to pause and glance up._

 _"Makoto… I…" There was a mist in Kazushi's brown eyes that was gone as soon as she'd spotted it. A melancholy emotion ghosted across his expression so quickly that she barely had time to register it, replaced by a cheery smile. "I just wanted to say, I love you."_

 _She blinked at him, confused, before a slow smile came over her face. "I love you too, Misonoi-san."_

 _She drank the tea. Oolong with two spoonfuls of sugar – just how she liked it. But the end tasted bitter._

 _It was rare that Kazushi burned the tea, Makoto noted as she settled the cup back onto the table. It was rare… that… he…_

 _What had she been thinking about again? She couldn't remember. She was forgetting something, but… couldn't remember what she had forgotten…_

 _The steam from the ceramic cup curled up and disappeared into the air, hypnotic._

 _Eyelids heavy, Makoto felt the world drifting away. But she was forgetting something… Wasn't she?_

 _As her eyelids closed, infinitely heavy and dragging, she felt a warm hand running gentle fingers down her cheek and across her forehead. The caress was slow and tender, as if memorizing her features._

 _From far, far away, she heard him whisper,_ _"I love you, Makoto... Good-bye."_

 _Her last, fleeting thought, spinning just out of the grasping reach of her mind, was that she remembered. She had meant to tell him tonight. She had taken a second test, just to confirm the results from the first one. It was on the bathroom counter, awaiting its reveal._

 _The test was positive._

 _Oh well…_

 _She could tell him tomorrow…_

 _When he was done with work…_

 **-x-**

 **Present Day**

As Misonoi finished, the auditorium's air hung heavy with morose silence.

Kyoko had no words. She could only sit, stunned, staring sightlessly at the tiled floor, brain trying desperately to process everything she'd been told.

Her mother… Her father… The PSIA – the very organization that had brought so much joy and purpose into her life—was responsible in large part for ruining it from the very start.

"Do you blame me?" Misonoi asked abruptly from beside her.

Startled from her reverie, Kyoko looked up. Misonoi was sitting, hands in his lap, eyes not meeting hers. A broken, wry smile settled onto his lips. The words came stiffly. "With that altered data, your mother went on to be blamed for the shooting of fifty-two North Korean civilians at the hands of the JSDF. The judge called her maliciously negligent. The government called her a treasonous criminal. The media called her a monster."

Swallowing the lump in her throat and unsure how to answer, Kyoko managed to return the question. "Do you blame yourself?"

Misonoi frowned at that, shifting to stare down at his hands open in his lap. "I used to… Until…"

His hands tightened into fists. "Until Rick… And then I realized who was really at fault."

Confused, Kyoko had about five different questions on the tip of her tongue, but was interrupted as her father stood suddenly and turned to face her, his dark coat swirling behind him. He looked down at her, a mixture of determination and excitement dancing across his features.

"But, that's all in the past. The government that ripped our family apart is within my grasp," the mastermind announced, confidence sweeping back his earlier melancholy. His eyes shone with conviction behind his wire-rimmed glasses. "No one will ever have to endure what your mother has – or what you have – because of the government. I can change it for the better. Forever."

Kyoko felt frozen to her seat, mind and heart in conflict. The dreadful discordance only worsened when Delta locked eyes with her and offered his hand, palm open in invitation.

" _We_ can change it. Together! Father and daughter," Delta proclaimed, almost child-like in his giddy enthusiasm as he grinned down at her. "Will you help me, Kyoko?"

 **0:06 until revote**

 **-x-**

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 **Japanese Notes:**

 **Toudou Susumu** – This is actually Toudou's real name! I think previously, I had noted that his name was "Sho" – but the continuation of that small side story I'd gotten this information from had actually continued to say that he'd told Kyoko that when she was young as a lie because he knew she was so infatuated with Shoutaro. "Susumu" is his listed name on the official Skip Beat Wiki. But… just makes me think, what a poor, sad childhood this guy would've had with a first name like "Susumu"… TL;DR: I'm retconning Toudou's first name in this fic!

 **Izanagi** – The husband of the deity couple who gave "birth" to Japan. In the legend, Izanagi's wife, Izanami, dies and he tries to rescue her unsuccessfully from the Underworld.

 **Bakemono** – translates to "Monster"; Kazushi's nickname for him is a play-on words as **"Baka** " means dummy and " **mono** " can mean "thing".

 **Japanese Self** - **Defense Force** – The military force of Japan. After WWII, Japan called it a "self-defense" force because Japan didn't want to be perceived as a belligerent, war-mongering country.

 **-x-**

 **MAILBAG**

 **ktoll9** – Thanks for leaving reviews! I'm happy you've been enjoying the story so far! And I totally think Reino and Maria would get along really well in canon lol

 **|MissMysterious|** \- Thanks! Glad you enjoy it! (I spent like a minute trying to figure out how to type your username with the vertical line thingys! Haha, should've just copied and pasted in retrospect xD)

 **brennakai** – Yeah! I'm happy you picked up on that. I thought it'd be interesting to have the story told in parallel like this. Thanks again for reviewing!

 **Lillyannp** – Muhahaha, cliffhangers! Cliffhangers everywhere! Well, cliffhangers and hopefully the feels :3 Glad the emotional conflict is coming across!

 **A Musing Brunette** – Thanks for reading from the beginning! That's something I've been trying to do as well so that I make sure I tie up all the loose ends. It makes me happy that even though you're busy, you still find time to review! Appreciate it! As for the manga, I think that the drama has come to a head in the most recent chapter. Dude, Ren and Kyoko's expressions were so heart-wrenching. I really want her to defend herself and not run away from Ren's accusations. Ugh… Nakamura-sensei, pleaaaaaase just put us out of our misery!

 **Guineapigs1** – Hehehe, is Delta bad? Or just misunderstood? I feel like all the best villains aren't just mustache-twirling, cackling men in top hats and black cloaks. They're either super crazy and amoral (Joker from Batman) or endowed with realistic motivations that have just led them down a dark path (Haku and Zabuza from Naruto). It's such an encouragement as a writer to see someone in my audience experiencing the doubts and emotional twists that I had planned from long ago. :3 Thanks for reviewing Guineapigs1!

 **H-Nala** – Hehehe have you made up your mind yet about Delta? He's just given Kyoko an ultimatum though… What will he do if she happens to turn him down, I wonder…. ;)

 **MWEH** – Where you at, girl? Lol, hope life's been treating you ok! If I see you comment soon, I'll try to update with a response.

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 _ **Again, don't forget to leave a review, an alert, or a fave! It really does help keep me motivated to continue providing quality writing for you guys! Love ya all!**_


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